A man (45) has pleaded guilty to assaulting Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman during a canvass in northwest Dublin on Saturday.
Karl Ronan, with an address at Erris Square, Waterville, Blanchardstown, appeared before Judge David McHugh at a sitting of Blanchardstown District Court charged with assaulting Mr O’Gorman at Erris Square on November 2nd, contrary to Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
Ronan was also charged with a count of damaging property – namely Mr O’Gorman’s clipboard – and a count of using or engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, “with intent to provoke a breach of the peace or being reckless as to whether a breach of the peace might have been occasioned” on the same date.
Defence solicitor Tertius von Eeden asked that pleas of guilty be marked on the charges faced by his client.
Ronan, dressed in a white T-shirt and grey tracksuit bottoms, did not address the brief hearing. The court heard that he works in sales, has a wife and two young children, earns about €600 a week and pays a mortgage.
Judge McHugh said that, if a plea of guilty is entered, the injured party has a right to be informed of the proceedings and to be given an opportunity to address the court.
He said that Mr O’Gorman should be allowed to “write a letter to the court for consideration”.
Garda Joseph Rogers, attached to Blanchardstown Garda station, gave evidence of Ronan’s arrest, charge and caution. He made no reply to the charges when put to him, the garda said.
Garda Rogers said he had no objection to bail in the case, but asked for several conditions. He asked that Ronan have no contact with Mr O’Gorman – electronically or otherwise – and to not comment online about the case.
The judge granted the accused bail on his own bond of €100. He told Mr Van Eeden to reiterate to his client the terms of the bail and warned that they were to be “interpreted strictly” and any breach would “put his liberty at issue”.
An application for legal aid was made to the judge but refused.
Ronan was ordered to appear again at the same court on December 17th.
