A RADIO broadcaster has been acquitted of assault and criminal damage charges relating to a dispute over alleged damage to a car.
Tipp FM presenter Norman Morrissey (51), Ballinlough West, Bansha, Co Tipperary, had denied charges that he assaulted a young woman, causing her harm, and inflicted criminal damage on a van on Halloween night of 2007.
A brother of country music star Louise Morrissey, the accused was found not guilty on both counts yesterday by a jury after just over 40 minutes of deliberation.
The four-day trial at Clonmel Circuit Court heard last week that Mr Morrissey smashed two van windows with an axe and a rake-handle after a group of people arrived at his house on the night in question.
He was accused of assaulting a young woman who was in the van at the time, Mary O’Leary, after a piece of the windscreen went into her eye, leaving her in need of surgery.
The van was being driven by a James Breen jnr, who alleged that Norman Morrissey’s son, Kevin, had egg-splattered his car and that of a friend.
Earlier yesterday, singer Louise Morrissey told the court she was living at her mother’s house in the Bansha area on October 31st of 2007 when her nephew Kevin arrived at about 4pm.
At about 4.30pm, Kevin showed her a text sent from James Breen jnr’s phone: “If you don’t answer your f***ing phone we’ll come up and smash every window in your mother and father’s house. We know you’re at home on your own, you little w**ker.”
Kevin’s phone rang again and she answered it, the witness told the court. A young man on the other end of the line started shouting abuse at her.
“I said, ‘How dare you threaten anyone’s property and make any threats’,” she said.
Judge Thomas Teehan told the jury that he didn’t often comment on verdicts, “but I agree with you in this case, for what it’s worth”.