Niall Gilligan found not guilty of assaulting boy (12) with stick
At Ennis Circuit Court today, the jury delivered a majority not guilty verdict that Mr Gilligan of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge had assaulted, causing harm of the boy, at the Jamaica Inn Hostel, Sixmilebridge on October 5th, 2023.
Mr Gilligan sat impassive in the court as the court registrar read out the not guilty verdicts. .
Shortly after midday Judge Francis Comerford told the jury they could make a 11-1 or 10-2 majority verdict in the case.
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In his closing speech to the jury on Monday, counsel for Mr Gilligan, Patrick Whyms BL, said in no way is Mr Gilligan trying to suggest that he was entitled to punish the boy as was suggested. He and said that the injuries sustained by the boy 'are clearly regrettable'.
Mr Whyms said that on the evening at the Jamaica Inn hostel, Mr Gilligan 'didn't know that he was dealing with a child and did not create this situation'.
Mr Whyms, instructed by solicitor Daragh Hassett, said that Mr Gilligan 'was at the end of his tether' by the vandalism being done to a vacant property he was trying to sell.
Putting forward the defence of reasonable force against the charge, Mr Whyms said that Mr Gilligan was at the Jamaica Innhostel on the night of October 5th 'in the dark and believed that he was under siege'.
He needed to 'make an instant decision and so we are here'.
He said: 'Believing himself under threat and needing to protect himself and his property, Niall Gilligan needs to make an instant decision and so we are here.'
Mr Whyms said: 'And Mr Gilligan, a family man who has young children and no previous convictions, gives a clear story which hasn't changed and an entirely credible, fulsome account of what happened.'
In her closing speech on Monday, Ms Sarah Jane Comerford BL (instructed by State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey) told the jury: 'This is a story of a man who lost his cool.
She said: 'Instead of picking up the boy after he slipped and bringing him out to his car and driving him home and telling his parents, he hit him and lost it and he was angry and frustrated.'
Ms Comerford said that the alleged assault in broad daylight 'is the action of a man who took out his anger and frustration on a child. There is no evidence that his injuries were caused by anything other than his interactions with Niall Gilligan'.
Ms Comerford said that Niall Gilligan 'lost control and punished the boy for the damage and inconvenience caused to his property on a morning when he had to clean up human faeces and urine from his property'.
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