A judge has dismissed a mart assault charge against the beef farmer son of Euromillions winner, Dolores McNamara.
At Ennis District Court, Judge Mary Larkin dismissed the assault charge against Gary McNamara following an application by solicitor for Mr McNamara, Daragh Hassett.
Mr Hassett made the application after the complainant in the case, Bernard Earley failed to show up to court last month for a scheduled hearing of the contested assault case.
Mr Earley was given more than two weeks to provide medical evidence as to why he was unable to attend court.
Dismissing the case, Judge Larkin described Mr Earley as “a reluctant witness”.
Judge Larkin stated that she was dismissing the matter after Mr Earley had not been able to provide to court medical evidence as to why he was not able to attend court last month.
The court was told previously that Mr Earley could not come to court due to a medical issue concerning a close family relative.
In court, Sgt Aiden Lonergan told Judge Larkin: “The State has sought confirmation of the position as we had outlined to the court. The State has been more than engaging with him.”
Judge Larkin then dismissed the matter.
In the now dismissed case, Gary McNamara (43) of Ruan Manor, Ruan, Castleconnell, Co Limerick had denied the minor assault charge on Bernard Earley at Ennis Mart on August 17th, 2021.
CCTV evidence
In his initial application to have the case dismissed last month, Mr Hassett told Judge Larkin “Myself and my client have a certain view of the alleged injured party in this case in relation to his motives."
Mr Hassett said that after the last call-over of cases in September, the case was reported in the media.
He said that after the case was reported on, there was a phone call from the area that Mr Earley lives in to his office “asking for a phone call back from me to discuss the case”.
He said: “I thought that this was improper.”
Mr Hassett said that the CCTV evidence in the case was of no assistance to the prosecution case and very helpful to his client's defence. He said the CCTV footage shows that “nothing happens”.
A native of Limerick, Mr McNamara farms a substantial landholding in east Clare.
Previously, Mr Hassett told the court that the case is not suitable for legal aid.
Gary McNamara’s family connection to Dolores, who won a then record €115 million EuroMillions jackpot in August 2005, was not referred to during the brief hearing into the case.
Mr McNamara has been farming land in east Clare for a number of years and in 2016 secured planning permission from Clare County Council for animal housing, feed and slurry storage facilities at Islandcosgry, Ogonnelloe, Killaloe.
Documents lodged with the Council application stated that Mr McNamara is a beef farmer with about 100 bovine livestock units on 220 acres of "eligible agricultural land” at Tinerana Farm.
The purpose of the proposed development was to accommodate cattle stocked on Mr McNamara’s holding over the Winter period and to provide suitable storage facilities for fodder, animal waste and farm equipment required for conventional and modern livestock farming.
The documents stated that the scale of the farmyard proposal was consistent with his farming activity and numbers of animals and type stocked.
