This week’s criminal court listing included a medley of mayhem featuring crimes ranging from a Kildare man performing a sex act in front of young girls, to Conti Birali who left a man’s skull “nearly concave” after an unprovoked attack, and a Penneys’ security guard who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl.
Needless to say it won’t be pleasant reading, but here are five of the week’s most notable cases.
Kildare man Mark Dolan (49) was caught with his trousers down in front of what Gardaí said was a group of four young girls aged between four and nine.
The father-of-three pleaded guilty to engaging in a sex act in front of a child at a location in North Dublin in May last year.
Prosecuting Gardaí told Judge Martin Nolan that CCTV footage of the incident showed Dolan parking his car a short distance away from the children before walking back towards them where his hand was on his genital area.
Gardaí told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that Dolan’s hand can be seen moving “a lot” in his “genital region” and that as he returned to his car he could be seen with what appeared to be a smile on his face and his penis exposed.
Initially denying the charges, Dolan claimed that he had suffered an insect bite to his genital area and was simply scratching.
He was handed a suspended sentence in relation to the matter.
Security guard Abdul Rahman Mohammed (35) of Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1 was found guilty of the false imprisonment and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl who had shop lifted a face mask and makeup brush from Penneys in Dundrum Town Centre.
Mohammed who was convicted of the offence on the 12th of February last but appeared before Judge Orla Crowe today made the girl strip down to her underwear in a private area of the store accusing her of having more items on her person and proceeded to touch the inside of her thigh.
Although the girl had been with two other friends in the shop Mohammad had told the others to leave or ‘they would get in trouble too’.
The girl asked if she could dress again to which Mohammad agreed, asking the girl to pay a fee outside the store to which she agreed.
The court heard Mohammad attempted to have the child send him 250 via Revolut which the girl could not afford.
When Mohammad came to trial the prosecution alleged that he had interfered with the security camera in the room in which the assault took place. He also denied assaulting the girl.
The matter has been set back until the 13th of May for finalisation.
Conti Birali (28) was sentenced to nine years in jail for his involvement in an unprovoked attack on Austin Doherty who was left with life changing injuries after an incident which took place on the Old Navan Road, Dublin 7, on July 31st, 2022.
Judge Martin Nolan heard that Birali, who has an address at Parlickstown Drive, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15, came up behind Doherty who was chatting to a woman in a club and hit him over the head with a bottle several times which caused a laceration.
After Birali was thrown out of the premises he called two friends who arrived on the scene and waited for Doherty to emerge from the venue.
His accomplice, Craig Maples (28), of Green Briar, Verdemont, Blanchardstown, was sentenced to a seven year jail term after pleading guilty to assault causing serious harm and violent disorder.
The court heard that when ambulance crew members found Doherty lying on the ground after being stamped on and beaten extensively his head was “nearly concave”.
Due to the serious nature of the injuries Doherty sustained in the attack he is now wheelchair bound.
In his victim impact statement, Doherty described his condition as like being in his own “prison” and said that he missed out on important events in his son’s life while he was in a coma after the assault.
Robbie Walsh (28), who in 2017 stabbed a man to death, was rearrested after the suspended part of his eight year prison sentence was activated after he assaulted and threatened to kill another man just months after his release from prison.
Walsh, who has an address at Island View, Kilrush, Co Clare, got into an altercation with a man named Martin Burke over a debt of 75 euro and proceeded to hit Burke several times in the head.
He also threatened to bomb Burke’s house and smashed windows in his car, prosecuting Gardaí said.
Mr. Justice McDermott activated the suspended part of Walsh’s sentence from his conviction for manslaughter on Thursday, 20th of March.
The manslaughter sentence relates to circumstance where Walsh fatally stabbed Karl “Gobbo” Haugh (25) on the 6th of August 2017.
He was released from prison on the 23rd of March 2023 after having his 8-year sentence backdated to 2017 because of time spent in custody, and with the final year suspended.
He had served five years and eight months of his sentence at the time of his release.
A 65-year-old man who a court heard described as a “pillar” of his community has had his bid to overturn his conviction and have his prison sentence rejected by the Court of Appeal.
Eugene Hanratty was convicted of assault causing harm in relation to an incident which took place at Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, on 24 November 2012.
During the initial trial Martin McAllister told the court how he and his wife had been driving when a vehicle carrying Eugene Hanratty and his son, Eugene Hanratty Jr. approached them with its full headlights on, blocking their path.
McAllister said that Hanratty Snr. approached his vehicle and proceeded to hit him in the head repeatedly while McAllister was still inside his car.
He was then pulled from the vehicle by his hair as Hanratty Snr. continued to hit and kick him.
He described going in and out of consciousness and that his arm was repeatedly stamped on during the attack which he felt was of particular significance as he is a musician.
McAllister suffered multiple fractures to the bones in his face, both his eye sockets were fractured, and he has permanent loss of his peripheral vision.
During his sentencing last February Judge Melaine Greally remarked that the attack was both “unprovoked” and “premeditated”.
She handed Hanratty a headline sentence of five years – the maximum penalty for the offence – but reduced this by one year and suspended the final year for 12 months
Counsel for Hanratty Snr. had argued that Gardaí had failed to conduct a proper forensic examination of the scene of the assault however president of the Court of Appeal Mr. Justice Birmihgham said that this did not have a material effect on the defendant’s guilt.
Rejecting the appeals Birmingham said that the court was “bound” to say that many of the arguments made by the defence “lacked reality”.