FOUR CLONROCHE men had charges of assault causing harm dismissed when they appeared in the District Court last week after more than two hours of evidence was heard.

Pleading not guilty before Judge William Early were Boro Inn owner Tom Doyle (49) of Coolnacon; his brother Sean Doyle (38) of Spout Road; Patrick 'Packie' O'connor (37) of 14 Slí an Uisce; and Kenneth Fenlon (35) of Clonroche. All denied the offence against injured party Shane Denton from 13 Canon Murphy Park in Clonroche.

As the hearing drew to a close, Judge Early indicated that they might have had a case to answer if charged with simple assault. However, in the absence of reliable evidence about the harm caused, he felt he had no alternative but to dismiss.

First into the witness box was Shane Denton (29) who described how he was outside the house of his friend Eugene Cogley in the housing estate on the summer's evening of Monday, June 21, 2010. It was around 7 p.m. when the defendants arrived.

He alleged that Fenlon punched him two or three times and that Sean Doyle and Patrick O'connor kicked him about the head while he lay on the ground. He continued that, when he made it back to his feet, he received three or four more boxes to the head, this time from Thomas Doyle. Denton told the court how he was left with two black eyes, as well as an assortment of cuts and bruises.

The incident was witnessed by Breda Cogley, resident of 8 Canon Murphy Park, who watched from her home as Fenlon and the two Doyles hit her neighbour. She also described O'connor tearing into Denton.

During the hearing, hostilities were traced back to events earlier the same day at the Boro Inn.

Denton recalled that O'connor was fighting there with a man called James Redmond. He told O'connor's solicitor, Gerry Flynn, that he was not particularly drunk that day.

However, FAS scheme worker Claire Kehoe from Ballyboro was in court to suggest that he had been one of the people who had been drinking in the Millennium Park on the date in question. Because of their presence, the FAS team did not go into the park.

They cleaned up the rest of the village and Ms. Kehoe adjourned to the Boro Inn around 3 p.m. with Leo Booth, Kevin Cleere, Paul Lambert and Padraig Joyce. Four of the park drinkers arrived as they enjoyed a smoke in at the rear of the pub. The customers went back into the pub and the door was locked.

Ms. Kehoe told how Denton then threw a beer keg at the back door while an individual identified as a man from Crossabeg scattered the contents of rubbish bins around the yard. Members of the crowd from the park then came inside with their hoods up and said they would burn the place down, Ms. Kehoe added.

Kevin Cleere from Tomfarney told the court he too was in the pub and he reckoned that Denton had a lot of drink taken that afternoon. He described how Denton jumped at Paul ' Dolly' Lambert in the yard of the Boro Inn and tore his top.

The charges considered in the District Court last Wednesday were preferred after Shane Denton made a complaint to Garda Sergeant Tom Murphy. The sergeant noticed that night that the injured party had a cut to his left eye and scrapes down his left side.

The sergeant said that there were numerous incidents around that time and other cases were pending. These included charges arising out of the scuffles that occurred at the rear of the Boro Inn, he confirmed.

He read out a statement made by Tom Doyle who indicated that he went to Canon Murphy Park on the evening in question to collect his two sons and also he was concerned at a suggestion that his daughter Orla had been threatened by Shane Denton.

In his statement, Kenneth Fenlon admitted hitting Denton and telling him to cop on. Fenlon's solicitor John O'leary stressed that his client would have pleaded guilty to simple assault.

Mr. O'leary felt that there had been two men, of whom the allegedly injured party was one, running amok in the village that day. Fellow solicitor Gerry Flynn pointed to inconsistencies between the written statement signed by Denton and the version he gave in court.

Mr. Flynn suggested that Denton was an utterly unreliable witness who had been drinking from mid-day . His behaviour had been awful and any injuries he sustained were superficial.

Garda Inspector Mick Walsh responded that the four accused had taken the law into their own hands. The judge lamented the excess consumption of alcohol that appeared to have prevailed that Monday.

He noted that he had no satisfactory evidence about any pain or harm caused to Shane Denton, with no doctor in court to sustain the charges. He accepted that there was an element of provocation in what occurred before he dismissed the case.