A PUBLICAN told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of a threat to burn down his family home unless he lifted a ban on a named person.
Mr Patrick McCarthy, owner of Seapoint House, Irishtown, told the jury that a house he owned on Shelbourne Road had been damaged by fire on a previous occasion. He was very frightened by the threat and reported it to the Garda.
Mr Sean Connolly (33), of Shelbourne Road, Dublin, denies threatening Mr McCarthy on July 13th, 1994, that he would burn down his then family home at River Valley, Swords, Co Dublin.
Replying to Ms Isobel Kennedy, prosecuting, Mr McCarthy recalled that on June 24th, 1994, he was assaulted by two men. A man named Michael O'Brien and another person, not Mr Connolly, were charged in connection with the assault.
On July 13th, 1994, he saw Michael O'Brien stopped outside his pub on a motorcycle. Mr Connolly was the pillion passenger and requested to speak to him.
The accused man told him he should not be banning people from Seapoint House and to drop the charges against Mr O'Brien and the other man. If he refused he would be taken care off. Mr Connolly asked him if he still lived at River Valley, Swords.
When he replied that he did, the accused man said he would burn down the house and that he (Mr McCarthy) knew what happened the house he owned on Shelbourne Road. That house had been burned down. He ordered the accused out and contacted the gardai.
Cross examined by Mr Giolliosa O Lideadha, defending, Mr McCarthy agreed that in a statement he made to a detective on August 27th, 1994, he had not mentioned the burning threat.
But, Mr McCarthy added, he had told Garda Oliver Egan about, it on July 13th and put it in a signed statement he made to Garda Egan on October 6th, 1994.
Garda Egan told Mr O Lideadha he was not aware of the contents of Mr McCarthy's August statement when he got the written statement from him in October.
He agreed with counsel that he told Mr McCarthy he needed to know the words allegedly used by the accused in the July encounter.
The hearing continues before Judge Michael Moriarty.