Claims:State ‘playing games’ to avoid assault charges against Senator O’Domhnaill

A defence solicitor yesterday claimed that Senator Brian O’ Domhnaill should also have  been charged in a case in which two men are accused of assaulting him.
Paudge Dorrian was speaking during a prosecution application to alter the name of a townland in summonses being prepared for a trial in a higher court.
He told Glenties District Court that the State was “playing little games” against defendants Jim Sharkey and Cathal O’Donovan to ensure proceedings couldn’t be taken against the injured party, Senator Brian O’Domnhaill.
The court was told the charges arise out of offences alleged to have been committed in a mini-bus after a night out.
An earlier court heard that the Director of Public Prosecutions had approved the prosecutions against Sharkey and O’Donovan but decided there were to be no proceedings against Senator O’Domhnaill
Mr Dorrian submitted that the defendants couldn’t even take out a private prosecution against Senator O’Domhnaill because they had run out of statutory time.
Judge Paul Kelly rejected Mr Dorrian’s argument that the trial judge in the Circuit Court decide whether a townland name could be changed.
He granted the State permission to change the name of a townland in documents being prepared for the book of evidence which is expected to be served on January 10 at Dungloe District Court.
The case will then go to the Circuit Court.
43-year-old Jim Sharkey, with an address at Bayside, New York, and 42-year-old Cathal O’Donovan, with an address at New Eltham, London, are accused of assaulting Senator O Domhnaill and causing him harm near Gweedore, on August 22, 2010.
© Highland Radio 2011