Plumber who touched lady in street must pay up

A KELLS plumber who had touched a woman "in a loutish manner" and then told "a cock and bull story" was given until 27th March to pay her €4,000 compensation by Judge John Brophy at the local court.

Peter Mooney, 3 Carrick Close, Kells, denied assaulting Janet Haqq at Oliver Plunkett Road, Kells, on 3rd July last.

The woman victim of the assault, from Cormeen, Moynalty, told the court that she had alighted from a bus at Headfort Place at around 9.30pm and walked up to the Carrick House where her partner, Kieran O'Connell, had driven in to collect her.

A man approached behind her as she was crossing over to the Carrick House and said something about it being "difficult to cross". She agreed and the man, Mooney, then made a grab for her and physically touched her on the chest, more than once.

She said she was sure that Mooney had drink taken.

Kieran O'Connell told the court that he had parked facing the street and saw Janet stepping away from Mooney. He saw Mooney try to grab her a second time and he (O'Connell) went over and asked him "what the eff" he was playing at.

Mooney "just stumbled away in an intoxicated state" and he followed Mooney down a laneway and around a back garden, phoning the Gardai as he did so in order to let them know where the defendant could be found.

Garda Catherine Davitt told the court that Kieran O'Connell pointed out Mooney to her at Oliver Plunkett Road at 9.50pm. Mooney denied assaulting the woman but was very intoxicated and witness did not know "if he understood what I was saying".

Peter Mooney told the court that he had "a good few pints" that night but he remembered the incident. He had said something to the "coloured girl", who he mistook for another girl he had been speaking to in the Carrick House the previous Sunday night.

Witness admitted saying something to Janet Haqq like, "you're not so brave now from Sunday night" because there had been trouble with a boyfriend on the Sunday night. "I was agitated," he added, but a car pulled up and Ms Haqq got in. "Nothing happened between us; I didn't touch her at all," he told the court.

The defendant told Supt Gerry Cadden that he had about two to three pints in the Carrick House that evening, three more each in two other pubs down the town before walking back up the town at around 9.40pm.

"I have a problem with alcohol but I'm getting help and I'm off it for a time," he said. Mooney added that he lived about five minutes away from the scene of the alleged assault.

The judge said that he did not believe a word of Mooney's "cock and bull rubbish" since the defendant had tried to avoid being followed. "This fellow would deny it if God Himself said it," added Judge Brophy. Mooney had seen an attractive lady on her own in the street and "tried his arm" while he was now trying to "best it out with untruth after untruth" in court.

The defendant said that he had a drink problem and was attending AA. He was separated and had two children whom he provided for, said his solicitor, Mr Jimmy Walsh.

Judge Brophy said he had no sympathy for Mooney, who should have been man enough to plead guilty. He had no doubt that the defendant had touched the lady in a drunken, loutish style. The judge noted that the woman was pregnant and the €4,000 would be "a nice present for the baby".