No criminal proceedings over baseball-bat fatality

There are to be no criminal proceedings in relation to the death of a Junior Cert student who died last year after she was accidentally…

There are to be no criminal proceedings in relation to the death of a Junior Cert student who died last year after she was accidentally struck with a baseball bat during an assault in Castleknock, Dublin, an inquest has heard.

Rebekah Kiely, Maple Avenue, Carpenterstown Road, Castleknock, was struck with a bat during a fight between two men as she was standing near St Brigid's GAA club on the old Navan Road on November 10th, 2006. She was taken to Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown before being transferred to Beaumont Hospital, where she was on a life-support machine for almost two weeks.

"The DPP has said there be no further action in this case. He has withdrawn the charges that were preferred," Insp Brian Sherry of Blanchardstown Garda station told Dublin City Coroner's Court yesterday.

Gerard Farmer (47) had been due in court to face charges arising from the incident outside the GAA club. However, several days before he was due to appear in court, he was found dead in his home at St Patrick's Park, Blanchardstown, from a suspected drugs overdose.

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Ms Kiely, a student at Castleknock Community College, was an innocent bystander believed to have been struck accidentally when one man swung a baseball bat at another but missed.

A postmortem report by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy found the cause of death was head injuries, the inquest heard previously. The inquest will proceed in full on July 25th.