Island assault is successfully appealed

A CIRCUIT Court judge has allowed an appeal in a case in which a man was convicted of an island assault.

At a District Court hearing in October 2022, Michael John Harte of Cloughboola, Skibbereen, was given a three-month suspended sentence for assaulting a man on Heir Island on April 18th 2021.

At the Circuit Court, the State solicitor Jerry Healy said the investigating officer was not available to give evidence and was not likely to become available.

‘In those circumstances, which are outside of our control, the state has to allow the appeal,’ he said. In the District Court, two men were charged with assaulting each other on Heir Island on April 18th 2021.

But the District Court judge held there was no evidence against the sec- ond-named accused that would warrant a conviction.

By grabbing a hammer swung by Michael John Harte, the judge said the other man had ‘disarmed an assailant’ and prevented ‘a potentially catastrophic assault on him.’

The District Court judge said Michael John Harte had ‘in a moment of spontaneous irresponsibility and recklessness swung a hammer at a man who was asking him to move his car and trailer.’

The judge suspended the three-month sentence on the condition that the accused enter into a bond to keep the peace for two years.

But Michael John Harte, who denied the assault charge, and his solicitor Flor Murphy, asked for recognisances to be fixed for a circuit court appeal.

The appeal was allowed without going into evidence.