Court archive
Court reports mentioning Kilcoole, Wicklow
2025-01-16 · Wicklow
Rodel Padilla, a former nurse manager at Beacon Hospital, has received a three-year, fully suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Judge Martin Nolan handed down the sentence after Padilla pleaded guilty to deception committed between July 2021 and August 2023. The court heard that Padilla exploited a system glitch to overstate his overtime, resulting in approximately €56,000 in payments. He resigned immediately after an internal investigation flagged the irregularities in 2023 and made full admissions to gardai. Judge Nolan noted that the matter was initially adjourned overnight to consider the appropriate disposal. In sentencing, the judge cited Padilla's guilty plea, cooperation, lack of previous convictions, and good work history as key mitigating factors. The judge stated that Padilla did not deserve imprisonment for his offending. Defence counsel highlighted that Padilla had lost his career and was in irrecoverable financial difficulty, having taken out loans to send money to family in the Philippines. The judge accepted that Padilla was unlikely to reoffend and that his remorse was genuine. The sentence is fully suspended, meaning Padilla will not serve time in custody, provided he meets any associated conditions.
2024-12-16 · Wicklow
Peter Sheeran, aged 33, was convicted of robbery after he used a bread‑knife to steal €1,000 from Murphy's Gala store in Kilanerin on 17 June 2023. He left his two‑year‑old and seven‑year‑old children in a car while he carried out the robbery and was apprehended shortly after by passers‑by. Sheeran pleaded guilty at Wexford Circuit Court in December 2023, where Judge Cormac Quinn imposed a five‑year sentence with the final year suspended. In November 2024 he appealed, arguing that the sentence was too harsh because he had no prior convictions, was acting under duress and the offence was not pre‑meditated. The Court of Appeal, hearing the case on 16 December 2024, found that the original judge had erred by setting an eight‑year headline sentence. The appeal was granted, and the Court of Appeal quashed the original sentence.
2024-11-05 · Wicklow
Peter Sheeran, 33, of Carraig Mor, Kilcoole, County Wicklow, was convicted of robbery after he armed himself with a bread‑knife and stole €1,000 from Murphy's Gala store in Kilanerin on 17 June 2023. He left a two‑year‑old and a seven‑year‑old in a car while he carried out the robbery and was subsequently caught by passers‑by. Sheeran pleaded guilty at Wexford Circuit Court in December 2023, where Judge Cormac Quinn imposed a five‑year sentence, with the final year suspended. On appeal, Sheeran's counsel argued that he had no prior convictions, was acting under duress, and the offence was not premeditated. The Director of Public Prosecutions countered that the planning was minimal and the knife was more akin to a machete. Judge Patrick McCarthy acknowledged the duress but noted premeditation in Sheeran's preparation and disguise.
2022-04-27 · Wicklow
In 2022, the Central Criminal Court sentenced Ian Ryan to three years' imprisonment for raping a 13‑year‑old girl in 1986. The case was brought to court after a 2021 anonymous letter prompted a Garda investigation. Ryan, then 18, had begun a relationship with the girl, who was 13, after meeting her at a disco in a rugby club. The court heard that the couple met at the victim's family home while her parents were away, and that Ryan asked her to use a condom, which she declined. He then forced sexual intercourse, which she described as painful and non‑consensual. The victim later became pregnant in December 1986. Ryan pleaded guilty in December 2021 to a separate rape charge. The judge, citing Ryan's age and background, imposed a four‑year sentence with the final year suspended, requiring participation in alcohol and violence‑prevention programmes and no contact with the victim. The victim, aged 50, waived her anonymity.
2019-06-26 · Wicklow
A 20‑year‑old Wicklow man, Aiden Hargreaves, was sentenced by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to consecutive terms of three years and two years for two separate knifepoint robbery offences. The first offence was an attempted robbery at Harbour Court, Dublin on 31 October 2018, and the second was a robbery at Carlingford Parade, Dublin on 29 January 2019. Hargreaves pleaded guilty to both. The final 15 months of the sentence were suspended on strict conditions. The court heard that in October 2018 Hargreaves approached a man who was rolling a cigarette, produced a knife, and the man fled after smashing a bottle. In January 2019, while on bail for the earlier offence, Hargreaves approached a Spanish national, produced a knife, and demanded the man's wallet and phone, which the man handed over. Hargreaves has 33 previous convictions, including burglary, theft, drug possession and failure to comply with a Garda direction.
2018-11-19 · Wicklow
In a High Court case involving two craft beer‑brewing firms, Whiplash Beer Limited sued The Dublin Lager Company Limited (trading as Larkins Brewing Company) over access to a shared facility at Renmore Business Park, Kilcoole, Wicklow. Whiplash had obtained a temporary injunction, claiming that the defendant had prevented its owner and director, Mr Alex Laws, from entering the premises, thereby creating uncertainty for the business. The injunction, granted ex‑parte, also barred the defendant from stopping any Whiplash personnel from accessing the shared premises. The defendant denied wrongdoing and sought to lift the injunction. A court hearing was scheduled to decide whether the injunction should remain until the case was resolved. Following a recommendation by Mr Justice David Barniville, the parties agreed to mediation. When the case returned before the court, Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds was informed by Whiplash's counsel that mediation had led to a settlement, and the case was struck out.
2018-11-08 · Wicklow
In a High Court case involving two craft‑beer firms, Whiplash Beer Limited has sued The Dublin Lager Company Limited, trading as Larkins Brewing Company, over access to a shared facility at Renmore Business Park, Kilcoole, Wicklow. Whiplash secured a temporary injunction last month, claiming that the defendant had prevented Mr Alex Lawes, an award‑winning brewer and Whiplash owner, from entering the premises, thereby creating uncertainty for the business. The injunction, granted ex‑parte, barred the defendant from interfering with Whiplash's operations and from stopping Whiplash personnel, represented by Rory Kennedy Bl, from entering the shared premises. The defendant, represented by Eugene Gleeson SC, denied wrongdoing and sought the injunction lifted. When the case returned to the High Court, Mr Justice David Barniville, noting the dispute was "a very obvious case for mediation," allowed the parties to agree to mediation, which is scheduled for early next week. The judge adjourned the matter for a week.
2018-10-09 · Wicklow
In a High Court hearing on 9 October 2018, Alex Lawes, co‑founder of Whiplash Beer Limited and twice named "Best Brewer in Ireland", was told that he had been "locked out" and banned from the shared brewery premises in Renmore Business Park, Kilcoole, where Whiplash and The Dublin Lager Company Limited (trading as Larkins Brewing Company) brew and package their beers. Lawes' legal representative, Rory Kennedy BL, explained that the ban was imposed by the defendant, a family‑owned microbrewery, who alleged that Lawes was a bully – an allegation Lawes denied. The defendant also threatened to terminate Whiplash's contract, which guaranteed 24‑hour access to the premises, and to force Whiplash to relocate. The contract, which had two years remaining, was said to be breached. Whiplash has sought an alternative brewing site but cannot move immediately, offering to vacate by the end of March 2019.
2016-10-19 · Wicklow
The High Court has dismissed a damages claim against Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, ruling that the body is entitled to sovereign immunity as an agent of the British Crown. The action was brought by Co Wicklow potato farmers Paul and John Brady, who alleged that in 2012 they purchased €88,000 worth of seed potatoes sourced in Co Down that subsequently failed. The applicants claimed total crop losses of €332,000 and alleged the Department was negligent in certifying two batches of Premier Elite seed potatoes as fit for purpose. They contended that shortcomings in the examination of the seed by inspectors resulted in their crop being suitable only for animal feed. In a pretrial motion, the Department argued that the Dublin Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the claim against it. At the time the proceedings were launched, Sinn Fein's MLA Michelle O'Neill was NI's Minister for Agriculture; she has since been replaced by DUP MLA Michelle McIlveen. Mr Justice Seamus Noonan held that the Minister and the Department were agents of the Crown, exercising executive powers under the Northern Ireland Act of 1998. The judge determined that the Department was administering the seed certification programme in a public law capacity, not engaging in private trade. Consequently, the court was not competent to adjudicate upon the administrative acts of a foreign sovereign's agent. The statement of claim against the NI Department was set aside. The Brady's damages claim against other defendants remains live.
2016-02-29 · Wicklow
In 2016, a Wicklow man, Declan Sheridan, aged 29, had his appeal against a life sentence for the murder of French musician and juggler Charles Sinapayen dismissed. Sheridan, who lived at Sugarloaf View, Sea Road, Kilcoole, had pleaded not guilty to the murder that occurred on the early hours of 29 May 2009 at Richmond Hill, Fassaroe, Bray. Sinapayen, 33, was shot through the window of an apartment he shared with his girlfriend Mary Kinlan. The Central Criminal Court found no known motive and, on 17 June 2011, Judge Paul Carney imposed a mandatory life sentence. Sheridan appealed on the ground that the jury should not have heard evidence of an informal identification procedure conducted at Shankill Garda Station while he was in custody.