A MAN ACCUSED of assaulting his former partner has had his bail revoked after gardaí claimed in court that he breached a condition of bail.
Larry Connors (18), with an address at Town Court, Shannon, is facing three charges of assaulting his 18-year-old former partner in Shannon on various dates in December.
He was brought before a special sitting of Ennis District Court last Saturday week, where bail was granted, despite Garda objections on the grounds that the alleged victim would be “terrorised” by the accused.
During that court sitting, a senior garda said that the accused was in a relationship with the alleged victim “and in recent times that relationship turned violent”.
He said the woman is the mother of a 10-month baby boy and “during the course of these (alleged) assaults, she was caring for her child and had her child in her arms”.
He said that the baby was taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick with serious injuries including a burn mark, two broken arms – one of which was broken in three places – a broken leg and multiple bruising to the body. “The State says (the woman) was assaulted at the same time the child was assaulted,” said Inspector Tom Kennedy. However, no charges have been brought in relation to the baby.
A number of bail conditions were attached, including that the accused stay away from the alleged injured party and her family.
Mr Connors appeared before Ennis District Court on Friday, charged with trespass and engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, at an address in Shannon, the previous evening, January 13. Inspector Kennedy applied to revoke the defendant’s bail, saying it would be alleged by gardaí that Mr Connors breached a condition of his bail. “He was to have no contact with the injured party. We say he contacted the injured party,” he said. The woman who Mr Connors is alleged to have assaulted then told the court that she was at home the previous evening. Asked did the accused contact her, she said, “He didn’t contact me. I was in the kitchen. He was chatting to my mother outside.” Inspector Kennedy asked her did she receive phone calls and text messages from the accused, to which she replied, “I never received them. I didn’t have the phone.” Defence solicitor Caitriona Carmody then submitted to the court that there was no evidence that the accused had breached bail. The woman’s mother then told the court that her daughter is fearful of the accused. She said that Mr Connors called to their home the previous evening and asked to speak to her daughter. “I wouldn’t allow him to because he wasn’t allowed to come anywhere near us,” she said. She said that he then started shouting and got “very violent”. “He said, ‘If you don’t get out of the way, I’ll hit you to get to (her daughter),” she told the court. She told the court that Mr Connors sent a number of text messages and made a number of phone calls to a phone owned by him but which was in the possession of her daughter.
“My daughter is a nervous wreck. I’m nervous myself,” she said.
Ms Carmody put it to her that her daughter said she had not received phone calls. The woman replied, “She was in the hospital. I had the phone.”
While the woman was giving evidence, Mr Connors shouted from his seat in the courtroom. He was ordered to remain silent by Judge Eamon O’Brien, who later told the solicitor: “You might advise him about his demeanour in court.”
Mr Connors took the stand and told the court he was not at the woman’s house the previous evening. Asked why would the woman’s mother claimed that he was, he replied, “Because she hates me with a passion.”
Ms Carmody submitted to the court that the woman’s evidence was “compelling. She didn’t appear to me to be petrified or scared.” The judge replied, “Are you suggesting her mother does not know her daughter?”
The solicitor said her client “has vehemently protested his innocence.” She said there was a “total conflict. The evidence is not clear cut.”
However, the judge said he was satisfied with the evidence from the woman’s mother and revoked bail. Mr Connors was remanded in custody to appear again in court later this week.