A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Jury finds man guilty of careless driving
An Enniscorthy man who pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing death has been found guilty of careless driving by majority verdict.
Anthony Armstrong, of Lower Church Street, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, had pleaded not guilty before Judge Alice Doyle at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving causing the death of Eddie Kirwan at Ballypreacus, Bunclody, Co Wexford, on July 25th, 2008.
The court was told that Mr Kirwan, an engineer with Wexford Co Council, who was doing a survey on the day during a bin truck collection, was struck by the defendant’s car which came between the truck and the ditch.
The jury returned a verdict of careless driving.
Judge Doyle remanded the defendant on continuing bail and adjourned sentencing to April 15th.
Car hit stationary ambulance
A "preventable accident" in which a car struck a stationary ambulance transporting a gravely ill man to hospital was described at an inquest as being like "a crash test" on the popular TV show Top Gear.
Michael McAuley (77), of Woodlands Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, who had breathing difficulties, was travelling in the back of an ambulance to St Vincent’s hospital when it was hit by a car on the N11 at Cabinteely, Co Dublin.
The ambulance, which had blue lights flashing and a siren on, was stationary on the road at the time and was waiting to make a turn, an inquest at Dublin County Coroner’s Court heard.
A postmortem found Mr McAuley did not sustain any injuries in the incident which could have contributed to his death. A jury returned a verdict of natural causes aggravated by a road traffic accident.
Alcoholic gets jail term for assault
An alcoholic who rang his counsellor after beating up a woman in a friend’s flat, has been given a two-year sentence.
Adrian Zawadyki (26), who comes from Poland, had attacked the woman for no apparent reason after drinking vodka most of the day.
Gardaí were alerted to her plight by his counsellor.
Zawadyki, formerly of Upper Sherrard Street, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting the 54-year-old woman causing her harm at a flat on Sheriff Street on January 12th, 2010. He has four previous convictions.
Judge Desmond Hogan imposed a two-year sentence but suspended the final six months and backdated the sentence to last year when Zawadyki was taken into custody. He directed that on his release he attend an addiction treatment course.