Defendant punched Laois shop owner as he attempted to retrieve stolen clothes
Portlaoise Courthouse
A MAN pleaded not guilty to assault, stating he acted in self-defence when the owner of a shop tried to recover items that had been stolen from it when he appeared at Portlaoise District Court.
Daniel McDonagh, Ballycrystal, Geashill, Co Offaly pleaded not guilty to the offence that took place at Foxcroft Street, Portarlington on 10 February last year.
Garda Mary Beamish said she attended Eamonn Bracken’s Menswear on Main Street in Portarlington at 3pm that day after receiving a report of a theft from the store.
There, she met one of the owners, Bernie Bracken, who informed her that she observed her husband Eamonn Bracken being assaulted by Mr McDonagh.
She said she took a statement from Mr Bracken, who said when he approached Mr McDonagh’s car, he looked in a passenger side window and saw clothes belonging to the shop.
Garda Beamish said that, in his statement, Mr Bracken said the defendant exited his car and punched him in his left jaw, got back in the car and drove off.
CCTV footage of the incident from the camera affixed to the nearby Anvil Inn was shown to the court.
Mr McDonagh’s barrister Anne Doyle said that her client would say that Mr Bracken had initiated the contact by approaching his car, opening its back passenger door where her client’s seven-month-old child was.
Garda Beamish said that Mrs Bracken had identified to her husband the man who had taken the clothes from the shop and that he, in turn (Mr Bracken) had approached the car and that Mr Bracken hadn’t been in the shop when the thefts took place.
Garda Beamish said the CCTV footage showed Mr Bracken open the back door of Mr McDonagh’s silver Nissan Micra that was stopped at the junction of Foxcroft Street and that Mr McDonagh exited from the front passenger side door and swing a punch at Mr Bracken.
Taking the stand, Mrs Bracken said on the day she had been working in the shop alongside two other employees. She said one of the employees had come to her to say that she saw a man putting clothes under his coat.
She said: “When I approached him, he said he hadn’t taken anything and that I should go and look at the CCTV. I told him to give me back the clothes. He took a pair of jeans from under his coat and gave it back to me. I told him I wanted the other clothes he took or that I’d call the guards. As he was leaving, I told him to f**k off and that I was ringing the guards. Soon after that, I saw him parked across the road. I rang the garda station, but there was nobody there.” Ms Bracken said: “He drove off and next I saw him again he was sitting in the passenger seat across the road. I rang my husband. He (Mr McDonagh) had left again. I drove around looking if I could see him. I saw him stopped down a side street (Foxcroft Street). My husband had arrived by then and he went to the car. I saw Daniel McDonagh get from the car and swing at my husband when he had a handful of our clothes, mostly jeans and jackets, in his hands. The woman who was in the driver’s seat was roaring abuse.” Ms Doyle, referring to the statement that Ms Bracken had made to the gardaí at the time, said in it that she was “unsure” whether Mr McDonagh had made contact with her husband or not.
Ms Bracken conceded that she had not, in fact, seen the defendant make actual contact with her husband.
Ms Doyle put it to Ms Bracken that the reason the woman in the car was roaring was because Mr Bracken, who was a stranger to her, had opened the back door of the car in which her infant child had been present.
Mr Bracken took the stand and told the court that he had not been working in the shop that day. He had received a WhatsApp message from his wife informing him that a shoplifter had been in the shop.
He said: “I went to the shop to see that everyone was ok. When I was there, my wife said to me and pointed saying ‘that’s the car.’ I looked into the back of the car and saw my price tags on mostly Tommy Bowe branded items. I said ‘they’re mine’ and opened the back door. He (Mr McDonagh) was in the passenger seat, his partner in the driver’s seat and a child was in the back. I reached into the car and grabbed a handful of my clothes up into my arms. There was a bit of shouting going on and the guy (Mr McDonagh) jumped from his car and made a charge at me. I kicked him back. The girls (shop staff) came and helped me. I also checked the boot of the car. There were other clothes in it, but they weren’t mine.” Mr Bracken said that when Mr McDonagh got from his car, he “made a wild swipe at me and grazed my jaw. It was all over within an instant and about €450 worth of my clothes had been taken.” Ms Doyle said that Tommy Bowe was a very well-known clothes brand sold nationally and she asked Mr Bracken how he knew those in her client’s car belonged to him, to which Mr Bracken replied: “My price tags were on them.” Ms Doyle said to Mr Bracken: “No one had given you permission to open that car door,’’ to which he said: “I didn’t look for permission. Nobody had given him permission to take my clothes.” “Opening the back door of a car with a child in it was a very aggressive act,” said Ms Doyle. “All I was doing was taking back my clothes,” said Mr Bracken.
He said he had been in business for the past 45 years, was retiring shortly and that “sometimes we have to put up with these type of people coming in and robbing from us. I hadn’t lost my cool. I was in complete control that day.” Ms Doyle said that Mr Bracken had taken the law into his own hands that day and that her client had acted in self-defence.
Judge Andrew Cody asked what was the basis of her client’s defence to his claim of self-defence, to which Ms Doyle said: “It was an aggressive act to open the back door of the car with a child in the back seat. It was a stranger opening the door of the car with his wife and infant daughter in it.” Giving sworn evidence to the court, Mr McDonagh said: “I didn’t know that man from Adam. He pulled open the back door and I feared my child was in danger. I was afraid for her life. I didn’t punch him or hit him.” Garda Sgt JJ Kirby asked the defendant: “What happened in the shop,” to which he replied: “Am I on trial here for assault or for theft. I never assaulted anybody. For all I knew, this man was going to kidnap my child.” Sgt Kirby reminded him that he has been charged and had pleaded guilty to theft from the shop on 18 February, from where he had taken €449.82 worth of items.
“I don’t remember being charged with that,” said the accused.
Ms Doyle said: “Mr Bracken wasn’t in the shop at the time. He didn’t witness him taking anything from the shop. He took matters into his own hands. Mr McDonagh was in the fear of his life and that of his child and acted in self-defence.” Judge Cody said: “I’m satisfied that Mr and Mrs Bracken are honest, decent, reliable people. I believe that Mr McDonagh’s defence is preposterous. I have never heard such drivel in my life. It was utterly preposterous to say that he was acting in self-defence. It was hypocrisy on steroids for him to say that people can’t take the law into their own hands.” The court heard that Mr McDonagh (30) has 14 previous convictions and is currently serving a prison sentence with a release date of 17 June this year.
Ms Doyle said that her client instructed her to say that he is doing well in prison and is not on drugs or drink and on release wants to be a constructive member of society.
Judge Cody convicted Mr McDonagh of assault and imposed a six-month sentence to commence on the expiration of the current sentence he is serving.
He fixed recognisance in the event the defendant wanted to appeal against the sentence.
