AN eight day trial involving a father and son concluded at Kilkenny Circuit Court this Friday.
After more than four hours of deliberations the jury returned with a not guilty verdict in relation to Joe Kirwan, 25 Edmund Rice Estate, Callan. The ju
ry acquitted Mr Joe Kirwan of trespass, criminal damage, assault and threatening to kill at 18 Edmund Rice Estate on June 15, 2008.
Trevor Kirwan, 25 Clonkill, Callan was convicted of criminal damage to a van belonging to Mr Declan Burke. He was acquitted of counts of trespass with a weapon and threatening to kill and the jury failed to reach a verdict on charges of assault and criminal damage relating to the front windows of a house and damage to a BMW.
Judge Olive Buttimer adjourned sentencing in the case to the next sittings of Kilkenny Circuit Court in April and ordered that a probation report be prepared for that date. Mr Patrick Treacy BL, acting for the State told the judge that he would seek direction from the DPP on whether there would be a retrial on the counts on which the jury failed to reach a verdict.
The trial, which ran over two weeks heard of a number of allegations involving the two defendants and their neighbour Declan Burke and his girlfriend, Agnieszka Meleskska.
The evidence given
Trevor Kirwan who was convicted of criminal damage told Kilkenny Circuit Court that he 'reached breaking point' on the date in question but denied taking the law into their own hands and acting in a vigilante fashion. He told the judge and jury that on the date of the alleged incidents he had drunk three glasses of wine while watching a hurling match. "I walked down to my father's and when I went up to the estate I saw Agnes (Agnieszka Meleskska) at the front door shouting.
"I met my father and asked what was going on and my father told me that a lad (Richard Quirke) had threatened to kill us both and to burn our house down. The abuse had been going on for years and he (Declan Burke) was threatening us continuously. I don't think that people should have to put up with it. I went over to the door and hit it with my fist and Agnes opened the door. I saw her reach across and pull something and I grabbed the bar off her. I was shouting at Declan Burke to come out. I realised a few minutes later when he pulled up in a van that he wasn't there. The breaking of the windows was over in 15 seconds. I was bleeding a lot at this stage. My father is on the footpath screaming at me to get out of it," he said.
"Declan Burke ran around the front of the van and Billy (Burke) hopped out and had something behind his back. Then Deccie got me in a headlock He kicked me a few times in the head and we exchanged obscenities. He (Declan Burke) went back into the house. I told him to come back out but he didn't.
