Man assaulted and mugged on Bellewsbridge Road

The attackers fled in the direction of Saltown

A 55-year-old man is recovering after being viciously assaulted while out for a walk on the Bellewsbridge Road on Tuesday morning.

The incident happened between 1.45am and 2am. According to The Argus the individual was approached by two young men who asked him for a cigarette but before he could answer they set upon him, punching him and knocking him to the ground.

It is understood he received head injuries, with the attackers escaping with his moible phone and wallet, which contained a small sum of money.

He was later taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital for treatment.

Anyone who spotted the young men in the area at the time or know anything about the incident are asked to contact Dundalk Garda Station on 042 9335577 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.

HIQA finds major non-compliances in nine out of 10 areas inspect at St John of God’s in Drumcar

A HIQA inspection at a St John of God-run residential centre in Drumcar, Co Louth has found major non-compliances in nine of the ten areas inspected.

The two houses on the St John of God campus, which cater for 16 residents, were the focus of an unannounced inspection in April.

An earlier inspection in February had concluded that the centre was so under-staffed that it could not ensure the effective delivery of care.

In early April, management gave HIQA its report on an investigation of an alleged physical assault on a resident by a temporary staff member which found the gardaí were not informed promptly.

The mid-April inspection then found major non-compliances in nine of the ten areas inspected in the two houses.

It concluded that ineffective leadership, governance and management arrangements were leading to consistent, repeated and continual failings which placed residents at unacceptable risk.

One resident had a communicable healthcare infection.

However the person shared a room with a peer who had a wound and whose bed was less than a metre away.

There were inadequate responses to allegations and suspicions of abuse and the practice of locking residents alone in a unit, had occurred on a number of occasions when under- staffing occurred.

Residents with complex needs were living alongside residents who, staff said, hit out at or bit them almost on a daily basis.

HIQA says senior management at Drumcar failed to respond and put in place interventions to mitigate such risks.

Two action plans drawn up by management in response to the findings were rejected by HIQA as inadequate.

 

Source: RTÉ News

Natasha McShane to act as bridesmaid for fellow survivor of Chicago attack

Natasha pictured last year

Silverbridge woman Natasha McShane is set to walk down the aisle – as a bridesmaid.

The UCD graduate was brutally attacked as she walked home from a night out in Chicago in April 2010. Now five years on, Stacy Jurich (27), who was with her that night has asked her to be the bridesmaid at her wedding.

Natasha’s mother Sheila is originally from Cox’s Demesne in Dundalk, while her grandparents Liam and Deirdre Stewart still live there. She also had many other friends and family in Dundalk.

Natasha McShane before the attack

29-year-old Natasha was on an education exchange programme at the University of Illinois at the time.

She was walking home with her friend Stacy when they were both attacked with a baseball bat by Heriberto Viramontes, with Natasha suffering a severe brain injury in the incident.

Viramontes has since been convicted of the attempted murder of Natasha and Stacy and must serve 85% of his 90-year sentence because of the particularly terrible nature of the crime.

Stacy, who now considers the McShane’s her extended family, got emotional as she revealed she has asked Natasha to be her maid of honour in her upcoming wedding.

Stacy will marry her long-term partner in Ireland this coming autumn.

“I chose Ireland because Natasha is there,” Stacy said in an interview with ABC News.

“The fact that she can stand up means the world to me, the fact that she can stand up next to me on my wedding day… I can’t put into words.

“I love her so much.”

Stacy, who received a courage award in Chicago on the five-year anniversary of the attack, said the night is something she is ‘trying to put in her past’.

“The attack is really been something I’ve tried to put in my past, we’ve gone through the trial, the sentencing and wanting to have a fresh life, a new life, but at the same time it’s always lingering there,” she said.

“It is something I hold near and dear in my heart, I know that sounds weird but it’s just because it’s the fact that it’s changed my life forever, it’s changed my family’s lives forever and the McShanes lives forever.

“Just speaking to the McShanes and seeing the progress we’ve made and seeing where we were in that ICU unit then versus where we are today is something to be proud of.”

Stacy now works as a client services associate for a major financial firm. She said it’s taken her a ‘long time to get to this point’. She said her relationship with her friend Natasha McShane is something she is certain ‘nobody could understand’.

“Natasha is making so much progress, the strides she’s been making are remarkable … where she was one year ago compared to yesterday.  I feel we’ve all been blessed because she is a fighter.”

Ahead of the sentencing in 2014, Natasha’s mother Sheila took the stand to deliver a victim impact statement, described the continuing pain, anguish and emotional turmoil the once highly gifted student and her family are going through.

All because of the “brutal display of humanity” that night in 2010 when a random act changed lives forever.

“If it was not (Natasha) then it would have been somebody else. That’s the sad part,” said Mrs McShane.

“We want justice whatever the outcome….Natasha will have a life sentence of her own to serve, a life sentence of pain and misery and unfulfilment.”

Natasha’s mother Sheila told the court she needed constant care, with a team of health workers helping the family.

Liam Adams appeal case adjourned in Belfast

Liam Adams was sentenced to 16 years in jail in 2013

The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland has reserved judgment in a sex abuse case against Liam Adams, the brother of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.

Adams (59) was found guilty of a string of attacks on his daughter Áine Dahlstrom when she was aged between four and nine during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He was given a 16-year sentence in 2013, but is seeking to have his convictions overturned.

Adjourning the case at Belfast’s Royal Courts of Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, Northern Ireland’s Lord Chief Justice, said: “We will make a judgment as soon as we can.”

Adams, formerly of Bearnagh Drive in west Belfast, was convicted of 10 offences against Ms Dahlstrom: three counts of rape, four of indecent assault and three of gross indecency.

The abuse was committed over a five-year period between 1977 and 1981. In later years he went on to work in a number of youth centres in the North and in the Republic.

A panel of senior judges – the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Justice Gillen and Lord Justice Coghlin – heard the appeal.

Defence barrister Eilis McDermott QC questioned the credibility of some evidence from Ms Dahlstrom’s mother, Sarah Campbell, in which she described holding her daughter all night after being told about the abuse.

Ms McDermott said: “It accords with the very dramatic account of events that were given on the UTV Insight programme that she had given to the police.”

The level of publicity surrounding the case was also highlighted.

“The circumstances of this case were unique,” Ms McDermott said. “The problem from the defence point of view is that the damage was done before the trial ever started.”

Ms Dahlstrom, now in her early 40s, has waived her right to anonymity. She was not in court for the appeal.

Source: The Irish Times

Liam Adams begins appeal against sentence for raping his daughter

Liam Adams was sentenced to 16 years in jail in November 2013

A lawyer for Liam Adams said that a judge was not sufficiently clear in giving her final direction to the jury which found Adams guilty of raping his daughter Aine.

Eilis McDermott, QC, in appealing the conviction of 60-year-old Liam Adams, also said the fact that Adams is the brother of the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams made the case a “national issue”.

Ms McDermott yesterday outlined her case on behalf of Liam Adams, who is originally from Bernagh Drive, west Belfast, but lived for a number of years in Dundalk. Adams himself appeared in the dock wearing a red check shirt.

In November 2013 at Belfast Crown Court Judge Corinne Philpott sentenced Liam Adams to 16-years in prison for sexually abusing his daughter Aine between the ages of four and nine. The offences occurred between 1977 and 1983, when Adams was aged between 22 and 26.

In October 2013, a jury of nine men and three women, by an 11 to 1 majority, found Adams guilty of all 10 charges against him – including three counts of rape, three of gross indecency and four of indecent assault.

In presenting her appeal, Ms McDermott referred to how there was “extensive publicity” surrounding two cases against Liam Adams in 2013 – the first in April which collapsed over an issue of disclosure and the second beginning in September which resulted in Adams’s conviction.

Ms McDermott told the Belfast Court of Appeal that there was not a sufficient “fade factor” between the aborted case and the second trial and that it was not possible for jurors in the second trial not to be aware of the original case.

Ms McDermott also referred to how there was extensive reporting of how Gerry Adams gave evidence in the collapsed trial even though he was not called to give evidence in the second case.

Ms McDermott referred to how, in 2009, UTV’s Insight did a programme detailing Aine Adams’s allegations against her father and how it became a “national issue” due to the Gerry Adams link.

She also referred to Gerry Adams’s disclosure on RTÉ that some members of his family were sexually abused by his father, also called Gerry.

Ms McDermott said that, as a result, “it is not a case where the fade factor would be effective”.

The lawyer said that Judge Philpott did not deal with the issue of publicity other than by the “standard form” of telling the jury not to read about the case or discuss it with anyone other than fellow jurors.

Ms McDermott said there was also a concern about the “clarity” of the final direction given to the jury by Judge Philpott. She said that certain aspects of her direction were “opaque”, “difficult for the jury to follow” and came “nowhere near the careful direction” that the jury required.

The lawyer said that there was “concern about the clarity of direction” of where the burden of proof rested in the case.

Ms McDermott also said that two weeks ago she received documentation from the Public Prosecution Service that was not disclosed in the two trials.

This showed that Gerry Adams was in contact about the abuse with his solicitor in February 2007 rather than in June 2006 as initially disclosed. Ms McDermott said had she known this earlier the “material certainly would have been used in cross-examination”.

Source: The Irish Times

Two men in a serious condition following attack on house in Dundalk

The scene at the Castletown Road this morning

Two men are in a serious condition following an attack at a house at Emer Terrace on the Castletown Road last night.

It is understood that four men attacked two others at the house with three people injured in total. It is reported that a number of items such as baseball bats and golf clubs were used during the incident.

A Volkswagen Polo was also damaged outside the property with Gardaí investigating the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Dundalk Garda Station or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.

Dundalk Gardaí continuing to investigate reports of assault on woman in Riverside Drive

The entrance to Riverside Drive

Gardaí are investigating reports of an alleged assault on a woman in the Riverside Drive estate on the Red Barns Road last month.

The attack on the woman, said to be in her 30s, is said to have occurred between 2.30am and 3am on Sunday February 22^nd.

The woman was found by a neighbour in the garden outside her house, who then alerted an ambulance. She was then removed to hospital having sustained injuries to her arms and legs.

The woman is said to be receiving counselling following the attack and Gardaí are anxious to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time.

If you know anything about the incident please call Dundalk Garda Station on 042 9335577.

Dundalk man jailed over assault with pick-axe

A 23-year-old man from Dundalk has been jailed for three years after being convicted of striking another man with a pick-axe at Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court.

Martin Smith, from Ashling Park in Cox’s Demesne, admitted five offences including assault, criminal damage and obstructing a garda on March 24^th 2013.

Mr Smith also exposed himself to a female garda in the incident, which occurred shortly after he was released from prison for a robbery in which he had threatened a woman with a Samurai sword.

Smith apologised for his actions in court and said he had undertaken anger management and relapse prevention courses to help turn his life around.

The incident occurred when a dispute broke out between Mr Smith and another man on the street in Cox’s Demesne. Smith then assault his victim with a pick-axe handle he had with him with the victim suffering multiple injuries including a broken arm in three places, a broken jaw and chin and a fractured eye socket.

As well as losing a number of teeth, the victim was left with a clot behind his eye that has affected his vision.

Smith also admitted in court to a more minor assault on a neighbour who had seen him strike the injured man as he lay on the ground.

After exposing himself to a female garda who had arrived at the scene, Mr Smith also smashed windows of a patrol car and another vehicle nearby. He also admitted to obstructing a garda who responded to the incident.

Smith was given three years for assault causing harm, four months for the minor assault on a neighbour, four months for obstructing gardaí, 12 months for smashing the patrol car window and 18 months for damaging windows on another vehicle. Each of these sentences are to run concurrently.

Source: The Irish Times.

Two men receive substantial injuries following assault in Dundalk

Two men are recovering in hospital this morning following an assault in the O’Hanlon Park area of Dundalk, close to Ice House Hill, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Both men, said to be brothers, were reported to have sustained substantial injuries in the attack but are on the mend.

Two men were arrested following the incident with Gardaí carrying out continued investigations.

Anyone with information on the matter is asked to contact Dundalk Garda Station on 042-9335577.

Man to appear in court today in relation to assault on woman

A 41-year-old man is due to appear in court later today after being arrested yesterday in connection with the serious assault of a woman in the Castletown Road area.

The victim, who is reported by LMFM to be in her late 30s, was taken to hospital following the incident, which occurred shortly before 10am yesterday morning.

The suspect was arrested at the scene and taken to Dundalk Garda Station for questioning.