Tag Archives: Limerick Circuit Court

GARDA Headquarters is to carefully examine a ruling by a circuit court judge who found that a Clare man was unlawfully arrested at a garda checkpoint, because the arresting garda informed the man he was detaining him to check he actually was who he said he was. In the first stage of a two-part ruling, Judge Francis Comerford, at Limerick Circuit Civil Court, said he was satisfied that, Anthony O’Donoghue, 36, with an address at St Micheal’s Park, Gort Road, Ennis, Co Clare, had been unlawfully arrested. Mr O’Donoghue is suing the Garda Commissioner, the Minister for Justice, and the Attorney General, for alleged false imprisonment, damages, aggravated damages due to alleged assault and battery by the application of handcuffs by gardai, trespass to the person, as well as an alleged breach of his constitutional right to bodily integrity. Judge Comerford, who is to finalise his ruling regarding claimed damages in the case, said: “Gardai cannot arrest people they don’t …

A POST office worker pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court this week to stealing nearly €100,000 in funds from elderly and disabled account holders. However, Mary Patricia Keirn (53), with an address at Vernon Crescent, Westbury, Clare, put the money back into the accounts. She was charged with 86 counts of theft and forgery totalling €103,000 and the State accepted Ms Kerin’s guilty plea to over a dozen sample charges. Judge Tom O’Donnell described the case as “extremely disturbing” after hearing money had been stolen from “vulnerable” customers. Ms Kerin was a respected senior member of staff working at the GPO, Cecil Street in Limerick when she physically stole over €20,000 from post office savings accounts customers, the court was told. The court heard she also made a series of unlawful transactions of the funds totalling over €80,000 before putting the money back within days of withdrawing it. In the bizarre twist, Gardai told the court, apart from the €20,000 …

A FORMER inter-county hurler told Limerick Circuit Court how his life changed irreparably, due to catastrophic injuries received when a burglar trying to evade gardaí during a high-speed chase in Parteen ploughed into him. Limerick Circuit Court heard that the injuries sustained by 79-year-old Eric Ryan in the incident in Parteen village last September resulted in him having a leg amputated above the knee. Before the court was Michael Sheehan, 26, of 44 Cliona Park, Moyross, Limerick, who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious injury to Mr Ryan and to two counts of burglary. Detective Garda Ronan O’Reilly said Mr Ryan, from Corbally in Limerick, and two friends had gone to nearby Browne’s bar for a drink, after playing a game of pitch and putt. Returning to a car park, they heard a garda car siren. The next thing a car, driven by Sheehan, crashed into the men, resulting in Mr Ryan suffering injuries that also included a fracture …