A woman accused of murdering her husband in their Knocklyon, Dublin, home last July was remanded yesterday at Tallaght Court.
Ms Dolores O'Neill (48), Coolamber Park, Knocklyon, is charged with murdering Mr Declan O'Neill on or about July 22nd, and with assaulting Mr O'Neill between July 22nd and 23rd.
Garda David Connolly told the court that Ms O'Neill had given no reply to the murder charge. He said that the "existing charge stands". Ms O'Neill had previously been granted bail on the assault charge. State solicitor Ms Margaret Moran said a book of evidence could be ready in two weeks.
Judge James McDonnell adjourned the case to December 11 but remanded Ms O'Neill to December 4th for mention.
SA woman jailed over cannabis
A destitute South African woman who imported drugs at Dublin Airport has been refused a suspended sentence for her own good.
Judge Joseph Matthews described Helen Bickford (55), with no fixed abode, as "an example of the minnows and sardines of the drug trade that wash up on our shores while the great white sharks swim silently in the deep waters creating greater damage.
"I look forward to the day when Jaws is standing in the dock," he said at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, where Bickford pleaded guilty to importing €38,000 worth of cannabis resin on March 3rd this year in a suitcase.
Judge Matthews jailed her for three years from that date, with the final 18 months suspended, because he believed a full suspended sentence would leave her at what he called "the mercies of the Celtic Tiger which is run by cash and cars rather than care and compassion".
Nurse's case against health board settled
An action for damages taken by a psychiatric nurse arising from an incident in which a disturbed patient died at Cork University Hospital was settled at the High Court yesterday. No details of the settlement were disclosed.
Mr Pat Healy (39), a father of three, Portaferry, Co Down, had sued the Southern Health Board over an incident on April 21st, 1994, when a male patient in his 30s collapsed and later died, allegedly after being physically restrained by Mr Healy and other staff.
Mr Healy claimed that, because of the board's alleged failure to train him in appropriate restraint techniques, he placed his body partially across the patient's trunk while the man was lying face-down. The patient was pronounced dead about an hour later. At an inquest in March 1995, Mr Healy said he learned the patient had died due to asphyxiation, having inhaled his own vomit.
Mr Healy has not worked since the incident.
The board had pleaded that if Mr Healy suffered the injuries claimed, which it denied, these were caused or contributed to by his own negligence in that he refused to avail of the board's offer of psychiatric care.
Mr Justice O'Donovan yesterday struck out the matter and made an order for costs in favour of Mr Healy.
Court to determine boy's right to care
Judge Geoffrey Browne has adjourned the case of a 14-year-old homeless boy, who had been working as a prostitute, until the High Court determines his constitutional rights to a placement in a secure and suitable residential unit.
The Dublin Children's Court heard that the boy had previously gone missing from a residential care home for 10 days and nobody knew where he was. The judge adjourned the case until a date in April pending the outcome of the High Court proceedings.