Cork man jailed
A Cork man who raped a woman in a public park after she lay there to sleep having become separated from her friends on a night out has been jailed for five and a half years.
Dermot O'Connor (49) was sleeping rough in the park that night, when the 20-year-old victim, who was clearly intoxicated, came in and found a secluded place to sleep. He first sexually assaulted the woman while she was sleeping and left, but returned again to rape her.
O’Connor of St John Terrace, World’s End, Kinsale, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape at the park on July 21st, 2019.
The now 22-year-old woman read her victim impact statement into the record
Digtal Covid cert issues
Minister of State Ossian Smyth has said the system for querying details on EU Digital Covid Certificate should have been through an online portal from the start.
“A call centre is very much an idea from the past,” he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne.
When it was pointed out that he was the Minister of State responsible for eGovernment, Mr Smyth said: “I'm not in charge, the Department of Health is.”
Mr Smyth said he was “extremely keen” to bring in a system whereby “you can log on to the HSE and access some of your medical data, which you can do with the Department of Social Protection, Revenue, you can do it in departments all across government.”
Zappone appointment fallout
Simon Coveney has said he “blames himself” for any mistakes made in the appointment of former minister Katherine Zappone to a new special envoy role.
The Foreign Affairs Minister insisted on Friday that the new role, which will see Ms Zappone appointed UN special envoy for freedom of expression, is not a “makey-up job”.
However, he acknowledged there had been mistakes in how the appointment was brought to Cabinet.
On Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there had been an “oversight” in the procedure which saw the former minister for children appointed to the new diplomatic role, and on Thursday he said it was a matter for Mr Coveney to clarify “the full sequence of events”.
Attempted murder charge
An alleged gunman has been further charged with attempted murder of two Garda detectives who were injured in a shooting in Dublin in May.
Daniel Goulding, 38, who has been receiving psychiatric treatment for several years, was arrested following an exchange of gunfire and a two-hour siege at his family home at Whitechapel Grove, Clonsilla, Dublin 15.
The detectives were shot in the foot, one was wounded in the hand, and members of the public were exposed to the incident on May 25th, it has been alleged.
Mr Goulding was originally charged with unlawful possession of two 63 PM RAK type sub-machine guns with intent to endanger life, and unlawfully possessing a Makarov 9 mm pistol and 74 rounds of various types of ammunition.
Mixed relay success
Ireland’s mixed 4x400m team of Cillin Greene, Phil Healy, Sophie Becker and Chris O’Donnell produced an outstanding run at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Friday night to power into the Olympic final, smashing the national record by four seconds when clocking in at 3:12.88.
As the Irish Examiner reports, Greene got the team off to a flying start, passing the baton to Healy in first place, who held things together brilliantly on the second leg before handing over to Wexford’s Becker.
She ran another strong leg before passing to O’Donnell, the Sligo athlete getting the baton in fifth but with a woman on the final leg for Nigeria, he powered up to fourth by the time he crossed the line.
The Irish quartet initially were waiting on the second heat to assess their chances of making the final given they had not secured a top-three finish, but disqualifications for the US and Dominican Republic saw them upgraded to second, advancing automatically.
OLYMPIC FINALISTS!!!!!🥳🤩🤩🤩🥳🥳🥳 Automatic qualification and smashing the national record by 4 seconds!!! Tomorrow the final is at 1.35pm Irish time 🤩☘️🙌🏻 Succeeding as a team of 6, with 2 great team mates on stand by playing a massive role at all times. pic.twitter.com/FgIoZDoisQ
— Phil Healy (@philhealy2) July 30, 2021
Kinahan lieutenant jailed
Senior Kinahan Cartel lieutenant Declan Brady has been jailed for seven years and three months for laundering crime cash while his wife and former mistress have received fully suspended sentences at the Special Criminal Court.
The trio appeared in court this morning, with Declan Brady in the dock as he is already serving a sentence for firearms offences. His wife Deirdre Brady hugged family members after receiving a three-year suspended sentence for her role in laundering €770,499.
Erika Lukacs (37) also received a fully suspended three-year sentence for laundering €196,864.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt said it would be disproportionate to jail the women as, he said, they did not participate in the underlying criminality that was the source of the cash. Were it not for their association with Declan Brady they would not have found themselves before the court, he said, and they had previously unblemished records.
