One of the State's leading deer farmers was yesterday cleared of charges relating to an allegation that he locked a young boy in a pen with wild boars.
Mr Patrick J. Mulcahy, of Ballinwillan House, Mitcheltown, had been convicted last year at Mitchelstown District Court of two counts of assaulting John Sexton and one of assaulting Philip Heaphy - both then aged 12 - at Ballinwillan on April 1st, 1998.
Yesterday, after hearing a full retrial of the case in Mr Mulcahy's appeal at Fermoy Circuit Court against the convictions, Judge Patrick Moran said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt and allowed all three appeals.
Mr Mulcahy had denied punching Philip Heaphy in the jaw after an incident in which his gate buzzer was rung by youngsters, while he also denied grabbing John Sexton by the hair, bundling him in his car and driving him up to his pig sheds.
He strongly denied he had put John into a pen with up to 30 boars as a means of frightening him over the buzzing or that he threw him on top of the Mulcahy's wolfhound and said the dog would eat him.
John Sexton had claimed that Mr Mulcahy brought him up to his pig sheds after bundling him into his car and had left him alone in the pen with between 20 and 30 boars for some minutes.
However, Judge Moran said he had doubts about the alleged assault on John Sexton, while he had very serious doubts about the alleged assault on Philip Heaphy.