Teenager accused of attacking man in feud related street brawl granted bail

A teenager accused of attacking a man more than twice his age outside Mullingar Courthouse in an alleged feud related brawl between two warring factions has been granted bail despite strong garda objections.

Johnny Dinnegan (19), of 30 Greenpark Close, Mullingar, County Westmeath was approved bail following a contested hearing at Mullingar District Court revolving around an incident on March 6 at Mount Street, Mullingar.

Mr Dinnegan was charged with assault causing harm to Ned Myers that resulted in him being transferred to the Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar for treatment to a laceration over his eye.

Mr Myers (60), who was the state’s main witness, said the incident and a feud ongoing in the town since July last year had left him walking an almost daily tightrope over his personal safety. "I am terrified and I have my house caged up," he told Judge Bernadette Owens. "I am in fear of my life."

Mr Myers’ comments came as the court heard of the state’s objections to bail being granted under both O’Callaghan Rules and Section 2 of the Bail Act.

Giving sworn evidence, Detective Garda James Grogan said it will be alleged Mr Myers was struck in the face by Dinnegan who, it was revealed was a part-time employee of local discount store Mr Price.

He said the incident had arisen in the aftermath of a bail hearing that had concluded a matter of minutes before the incident in question.

"The entire situation was of a significant and violent nature in full view of the public," the garda said. "The verbals continued even after garda involvement and the families were eventually separated."

He said gardaí later took Mr Myers and a second man inside the courthouse "for their own safety" as they sought to restore calm.

Det Garda Grogan said the nature of the incident was a "clear and blatant example of witness intimidation" and another element of a feud that had pitted members of the Dinnegan and Nevin/Myers families against one another.

The court heard how incidents of endangerment, assaults, threats to kill and cause serious injury also came under investigation over the last nine and a half months.

Det Garda Grogan also outlined a further reasoning behind the state’s objections to bail, based on the fact Mr Dinnegan was before the courts for a separate, "feud related incident" on July 13 last year.

In defence, Andrea Callan, BL, said the reason her client had been in the vicinity of Mullingar Courthouse on the day of the incident was to accompany his mother, who had been due to give evidence in connection to the aforementioned bail hearing.

"Johnny has been absolutely steadfast in this in that the only reason he got involved in this was because Ned Myers had pushed his younger brother," she told the court.

Ms Callan said Dinnegan has followed bail conditions set down by the court last July and continued to labour under a stream of mental health ailments.

Det Garda Grogan, however, insisted neither he or his colleagues were privy to mental health concerns outlined by Ms Callan.

Ms Callan stressed her client was not a key player in the feud and said remanding him in custody or ordering him to stay out of Mullingar would affect his wellbeing.

She said Mr Dinnegan had come to court with €3,000, to be offered as a surety condition.

Having risen for a number of minutes to consider her verdict, Judge Owens returned to state the prosecution had met the requirements set down by both Section 2 and O’Callaghan Rules. She said the court also needed to examine whether conditions would suffice in easing both its and the state’s concerns in Mr Dinnegan abiding to any bail order handed down.

She remanded Mr Dinnegan on bail on his own bond of €3,000.

He was also ordered to abide by other conditions, including to reside at Mill House, Canal Avenue, Mullingar, to observe a 10pm-7am curfew, to have no contact with his alleged victim or any member of the Myers family, to sign on daily at Mullingar Garda Station, to stay off all social media platforms and to surrender his passport.

Mr Dinnegan is due to reappear at Mullingar District Court on June 12.