More news in brief.
Widow halts asbestosis damages case
An action for damages against the ESB over the death of a 53-year-old man from asbestosis was withdrawn by his widow at the High Court yesterday.
Mr Justice John Quirke was told that the action by Teresa Clohessy was being withdrawn and that the ESB had agreed to pay the funeral expenses of her late husband, Michael, on a humanitarian basis.
Ms Clohessy, Kilcross Lawn, Sandyford, Dublin, had sued the ESB, alleging her husband's death was a result of asbestosis which, she alleged, was incurred during his employment with the company from 1968 until he retired in 2001.
The ESB denied the claims and alleged Mr Clohessy had been employed at one stage by another company in a Dublin factory where three people had died from asbestosis.
Mr Clohessy retired from the ESB in September 2001 because of ill health and died on December 6th, 2003.
Return child to Poland - court
A Polish grandfather has secured a High Court order requiring his daughter, who came to Ireland with her nine- year-old son in autumn 2006, to return the child to Poland pending the outcome of custody proceedings in the Polish courts.
The mother had wrongfully removed the child from the place of his habitual residence, Mr Justice John MacMenamin ruled yesterday.
Man jailed for assaulting girls
A man has been sentenced to eight years in jail after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two young sisters when they were aged six and eight.
John Struthers (39), formerly of the Maples, Mahon, Cork, pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday to four counts of sexually assaulting the two girls between 2004 and 2007.
Judge Patrick Moran said Struthers, who knew the girls' parents, had betrayed a trust placed in him.
Elder abuse 'tip of the iceberg'
HSE staff dealt with 523 cases of alleged elder abuse in the first four months of this year, according to new figures released yesterday, writes Alison Healy.
There were 1,500 referrals to the HSE in the past 12 months, with about 150 of those involving gardaí.
Age Action Ireland said it believed these figures were "just the tip of the iceberg".
Some 83 per cent of cases dealt with by the HSE this year involved people in their own homes and in 96 per cent of cases, the alleged abusers were family members.