A convicted sex offender awaiting sentence for a Christmas Day sex assault on his daughter has complained of the incessant smoking of the two other prisoners with whom he was sharing a cell.

A West Cork man accused of breaking his best friend’s cheekbone with a punch to the face after drinking 15 Jaegerbombs, five or six bottles of Heineken, and 10 to 12 shots of tequila has been acquitted.

A man who had most of his two-year jail term suspended following a teenager’s death at an orgy of drink and drugs was given another chance to co-operate with the Probation Service after evidence that he was continuing to take drugs and was not co-operating.

A young mother had her handbag stolen just days after her former boyfriend was jailed for pouring a kettle of boiling water, mixed with sugar, over her.