Neighbour assaulted as gate ‘pushed’ at her in dispute over boundary in Kealkil

A WOMAN claimed her neighbour in Kealkil assaulted her following a row about a boundary dispute, but the accused made a counter allegation against her.

There were two recent charges before Bantry District Court, both of which were brought against Aram Kingerlee of Lackavane, Kealkil.

The accused was charged with trespass at Lackavane, on Friday January 13th last, and with assaulting his neighbour Ciara Strange.

In evidence for the prosecution, Ciara Strange said she had seen the accused cutting branches on his side of the boundary and was ‘worried that trees would be cut on our land’. She said Aram Kingerlee stood in a stream and told her that he wanted the gate – which leads into his property – removed by Monday, January 16th.

Ciara Strange, who was filming the incident on her phone, told him she didn’t want trees cut on their land.

She alleged the accused then turned, seeming to have ‘lost control’, and grabbed the gate, pushing it back against her. She said this forced her back against an oil container and then he slapped her face.

‘I feared for my life,’ she said. ‘He hit me again on the head while my son was there.’ The witness said she called the gardaí straight away and gave the investigating officer the film footage.

Flor Murphy, the solicitor representing Aram Kingerlee, said the stream is his client’s property, and that there was no trespass onto Ciara Strange’s land. The solicitor said his client believed the gate was an attempt to create a right-of-way onto his land. The accused also made an allegation that the witness’s partner would shoot deer on his land, and their children would jump on his silage bales, and destroy them.

Aram Kingerlee’s solicitor said the boundary dispute has been going on for about three years, and there was a further allegation that his neighbours’ dogs were worrying his sheep, having found one lamb ripped to pieces.

In his statement to gardaí, and in evidence in the witness box, the accused said: ‘I asked her to remove the gate because there is no need for them to have a gate into my field.’

He alleged it was Ciara Strange who came down the field, shouting and being verbally abusive, ‘determined to have a confrontation’. The accused said it was only after Ciara Strange scratched his eye that he pushed the gate back against her. He claimed this caused her fall over a barrel and he denied slapping her.

Judge James McNulty watched the footage, during which Ciara Strange could be heard to say: ‘F**k you, you f**ker.’

Judge McNulty held that the charge of trespass was not proven by the State and he dismissed that charge. The judge noted that the accused’s neighbours ‘may have taken a liberty in erecting a gate where there was none before’.

‘As for the charge of assaulting Ciara Strange,’ the judge said, ‘I have heard the audio, and watched the video, and it is clear from the audio that Ciara Strange is assertive to the point of aggression.

‘When you see and hear her on the phone recording,’ the judge said, ‘it is clear that Ciara Strange is well capable of aggressive and abusive behaviour.’ Judge McNulty held that Aram Kingerlee was guilty of assault by pushing the gate against Ciara Strange. ‘By impacting her,’ he said, ‘the accused committed a minor assault during a brief and unseemly argument over a situation that is largely unresolved.’

‘The court will,’ he added, ‘put down a marker and record a conviction for assault and sentence the accused to 30-days imprisonment but suspend the sentence for two years.’