JUDGE James McNulty dismissed a charge brought against a 73-year-old Skibbereen man accused of stealing galvanised sheeting from a friend.
Court presenter Sgt Tom Mulcahy outlined the facts, but solicitor Liam O’Donovan argued that his client, Eugene Hickey of 7 St Fachtna’s Terrace, Skibbereen, hadn’t been paid for five days’ work, constructing a shed.
Sgt Mulcahy said that on October 5th last, the accused took the piece of sheeting, valued at €320, from the property of Jerry O’Mahony at 5 New Terrace in Ballydehob.
It was alleged that on December 19th the accused engaged in threatening and abusive words and behaviour at Boyle’s Sports in Skibbereen – in that he shouted at his former friend – the father of the man for whom he’d built the shed. ‘These two men were friends for many years,’ Mr O’Donovan told the court. ‘He was asked to go to Mr O’Mahony’s son’s place to build a shed.’
According to the solicitor, his client bought materials valued at over €1,000 and spent five days constructing the shed.
When the job was done he said his client was paid for the materials, but when he asked for a few pounds for himself, Mr O’Mahony and his son said: ‘We didn’t ask you to do it’.
‘That is in their statements and it festered in my client’s mind,’ Mr O’Donovan added. ‘He felt aggrieved and took down some of the cladding and took it with him.’
The solicitor told the court that his client was ‘more sinned against than sinning.’
Judge James McNulty said he could put his client at ease because he would be dealing with both charges under the Probation Act.
Judge McNulty dismissed the charge of stealing the sheeting; and he imposed a conditional discharge in respect of the public order offence, which means the accused has to enter into a bond to be of good behaviour for the next three years.
‘No good deed goes unpunished,’ said the judge, who also quoted a line from the bible: ‘The labourer is worthy of his wage.’
