More court reports in brief.
Building firm faces negligence penalty
A leading construction company will be sentenced next month for negligence which led to a father of two being killed when a concrete staircase collapsed on him at a building site in 2002.
Thomas O'Neill (31), a construction worker from Lucan, died when three flights of stairs, each two tonnes, collapsed on him.
G & T Crampton Ltd, Clonskeagh, Dublin, the main contractor on the site, pleaded guilty through its solicitor, Peter Mullen, to directing people to work in the vicinity of the stairwell, in circumstances where it ought to have known it was unsafe, at South Lotts Office Development, South Lotts Road, Ringsend on December 12th, 2002.
Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court adjourned sentence.
Man remanded over cocaine find
A South African national arrested last Sunday at Dublin airport has been further remanded to Cloverhill Prison until May 10th. Stevern Gouws, from Johannesburg, was arrested by Customs officers who found 1.5kg of cocaine in his suitcase after he arrived from Zurich.
The value of the seizure is estimated to be €108,000.
Rape accused said he had been virgin
A Wexford teenager accused of raping a schoolgirl told gardaí he was a virgin before the incident at the Arklow Sea Breeze festival in July 2004, a jury in the Central Criminal Court heard.
Garda Finola Maher said the now 18-year-old man told gardaí: "I want to press charges against her. She raped me." Garda Maher said he claimed he thought the complainant was "about 20" when he met her.
He has pleaded not guilty to four charges of raping and sexually assaulting the then 14-year-old girl. The trial continues on Monday before Mr Justice Éamon de Valera.
No time to bring suspect to court
A suspected drugs user and dealer already in jail was acquitted of a string of new charges yesterday because prison chiefs refused to send him to court.
Judge Derek McVeigh heard jailers at St Patrick's Institution for young offenders in Dublin told gardaí that 24 hours was not enough notice to prepare transport for Gregory Innes to a special sitting of Ballyshannon District Court, 217km away. The prison said it required 48 hours to arrange transport.