Gordon Deegan
A father-of-three wept in court after he was found not guilty of assaulting, mishandling and ill-treating his then six-year-old daughter four years ago.
At Ennis Circuit Court today, a jury delivered a majority 11-1 not guilty verdict after deliberating for two hours and 17 minutes after a two-day trial.
The 35-year-old put his hands together and gestured a ’thank you’ to the jury after the verdict was delivered late on Tuesday afternoon.
Judge Brian O’Callaghan told the man that he came into court an innocent man and leaves an innocent man. "They are not hollow words," the judge said.
Garda specialist interviewer
In a recorded interview, the six-year-old girl told a specialist Garda interviewer in July 2017 that her father choked her for no reason.
However, in a voluntary Garda interview, the man denied that he tried to choke his daughter or struck her on the eye or ear. He said: “that is not what happened.”
The father — estranged from the mother of their children — stated that the incident with his daughter “although bad was not as bad as it was made out to be”.
He said that he did grab his daughter’s arm and by the scruff of the jumper after an incident over a tablet between his daughter and another sibling.
In the case, the 35-year-old father pleaded not guilty to assaulting, mishandling and ill-treating the then six-year-old child in his care in a manner likely to cause unnecessary injury to the child’s health contrary to Section 246 of the Children’s Act at the family’s then home on June 3rd, 2017.
The girl was not cross-examined on her evidence by counsel for her father, Pat Barriscale BL on the instructions of his client. Mr Barriscale told the jury that his client told him “you are not to cross-examine her”.
Evidence
Counsel said that the girl did the best she could in the specialist interview but that there is an uncertainty, a question and a doubt over her evidence.
Mr Barriscale told the jury that he couldn’t go as far to say that the allegations against his client “is a set up” by the girl’s mother “but you must be suspicious I suggest to you and the repercussions flow to my client. What is the motivation behind it all?”
Counsel stated that his client told gardaí that his ex-partner told him on June 11th, 2017 that she would get him out of the house.
A medical exam on the girl carried out 11 days after the alleged incident detected no evidence of physical injuries.
