Dundalk man convicted of assault
A 20 year old man who failed to attend Dundalk District Court to meet charges of assaulting a young man and making a threat to burn his family home on Valentine’s Day last year, was convicted in his absence last week.
Judge Eirinn McKiernan issued a warrant for the arrest of Cillian Myles of Villas One, Muirhevnamor, Dundalk.
The assault victim told the court last Wednesday that he was going for a walk at Villas Two, Muirhevnamor when three youths on bikes approached him including Cillian Myles who he said kept shouting at him “I’m dead’.
He claimed the defendant jumped off his bike and hit him with a punch.
The witness said he took refuge in his granny’s and the accused came back and said he had to pay €200 by Friday or he’d petrol bomb his house and break it up.
The man said he believed it was a genuine threat and after he told his mum, they both went to the defendant’s aunt’s where he said Cillian Myles said he had to pay the consequences of showing somebody where he lived and the witness said the accused kept shouting “pay by Friday or the house will get broken up”.
The victim’s mum told the court her son had been pale and shaking when he told her about the threats and being ‘hit a box’.
After he was arrested a week later Cillian Myles admitted hitting the complainant saying “It was just a punch”.
When asked about the threats he told gardai he obviously didn’t mean it “It’s been a week and nothing has happened”.
He also said “I’m hardly going to blow his house up in broad daylight.
“I legit didn’t know it was illegal to make threats’.
Judge Eirinn McKiernan convicted him of both charges and issued a bench warrant for sentencing.