Court archive

Court reports mentioning Kilteel, Kildare

2022-06-28 · Dublin

Woman bundled into van and told she'd be buried after drug-fuelled attack by ex-garda

In a 2022 court hearing, former Garda Stephen Cooper (37) and accomplice Stephen McGrath (37) were sentenced for drug‑ and alcohol‑fuelled assaults on two women. Cooper forced a woman to undergo a "strip search" after claiming she stole drugs, threatened her, and inserted his fingers into her body. McGrath then violently assaulted a second woman, kicking, punching, and tearing her hair, while both men threatened to take her to the mountains and bury her. They attempted to place her in a van, but she resisted and was ultimately left in the footwell. Cooper pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the first woman and to threats against the second, while McGrath pleaded guilty to assault causing harm, sexual assault, and weapon production. Judge Martin Nolan imposed a three‑year sentence for Cooper's assault and a three‑year sentence for the threats, to run consecutively.

2017-07-31 · Kildare

"Out of his head" driver avoids increased sentence for causing death of friend

Keith Jackson Fleming, 26, of Glenshane, Kilteel, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for dangerous driving that caused the death of his friend Dara Cottuli on 28 November 2015. The final year of the sentence was suspended. Fleming also pleaded guilty to driving without a licence or insurance and to failing to provide a blood sample. He was found to have been under the influence of alcohol and drugs, including D10s and Xanax, at the time of the crash. The vehicle veered, struck a ditch, a timber fence and a stone pillar before crossing the road again. The Court of Appeal upheld the sentence, noting that the judge had considered the seriousness of the offence and the circumstances, and found no error in the decision to suspend the final year.