The court poor box into which defendants in Kerry could pay money to avoid convictions has been scrapped.

A District Court Judge has said the repercussions of a simple conviction could be felt 20 years later - as a current incident in the US made clear.

A date has been set for the late night assault case involving the newly elected Kerry County Councillor Jackie Healy-Rae, who is alleged to have assaulted a 30-year-old English visitor to Kenmare, causing harm, in December 2017.

Almost €1.74 million has been paid out from the court poor box to various charities in 2018, according to figures released by the Courts Service.

Jackie Healy Rae, the son of Kerry TD Michael Healy Rae, has been charged with assaulting a 30-year-old English visitor on a Christmas break in Kenmare.

Court poor box payments to organisations are to be published in the coming weeks on the courts service website in “the interests of greater accountability and transparency”.

A 20-year-old man, banned from driving for 12 years for not having insurance, had “been working all hours to put money aside for the poor box”, a solicitor said yesterday.

A court sitting in Kerry took place in the private residence of the district court judge yesterday, where several cases involving special sittings have been heard over the Christmas period.

High-value vehicles, cash, and jewellery suspected to be the proceeds of crime were seized in Killarney this morning in garda raids on 11 homes.

Charity worker, businessman and a star of RTÉ’s Secret Millionaire show, Jim Breen, has appeared in court in Killarney on a drink-driving charge.

Fatal and serious injury road traffic cases are set to dominate criminal sessions at the Circuit Criminal Courts in the south-west in the coming months, a court heard yesterday.

The problems around the false convictions of 14,700 people on fixed charge notices may be bigger than is being admitted by An Garda Síochána, writes Michael Clifford.

Dozens of motorists wrongly convicted following the fixed-charge notice scandal are refusing to co-operate with gardaí trying to appeal their convictions and plan to sue the State.

A childminder seemed to be “biting” the face of an 18-month-old child when a postal worker called in a rural area outside Killarney, a court was told.

A burglar who broke into the home of a Kerry man in his 70s, causing minor criminal damage, has been told to provide €5,000 compensation “to make amends”.

A farmer has pleaded guilty to 14 sample counts, mainly in relation to bovine tagging and identification, animal movement, and animal health and welfare.

“Tis a great little country” a judge remarked after being told a man with over 100 convictions who was found boarding a train in Killarney for Banteer in Co Cork with a new bike he had just stolen from a shop in the Kerry town’s High Street would be able to go back home on the train on a free travel pass.

A man yesterday appeared before a district court in Kerry charged with possession of more than 120 images of child pornography involving pre-teen girls or girls under the age of 17, along with nine video files.

A teenage fisherman from Valentia Island, accused of an assault, has been ordered by a court to stay “completely out” of neighbouring Kerry town Cahirciveen until the DPP gives a direction in the matter.

A solicitor conceded there was a “certain amount of misdirected religious zeal” when prayer meetings and counselling led to the harassment of a female American preacher by a Kerry woman.

A man with 102 previous convictions — 29 of which were for theft — was caught boarding a train in Killarney with a €500 bicycle he had earlier taken from a cycle shop, along with two jumpers from a shop near the railway station, Killarney District Court was told.

A 77-year-old bachelor farmer who was caught drink driving more than three years ago will be allowed “motor on” for another year, a court has decided.

A man who was caught leaving a shop in Killarney, Co Kerry, with five Cadbury’s selection boxes has been jailed.

A boat was drifting north of the Skellig Michael world Heritage site and its sister island, with passengers on board — just six days after an inspector from the Department of the Marine warned the skipper it was unseaworthy, a court heard.

Prosecutions have been taken on behalf of the minister for transport, tourism and sport against three boatmen, alleged to have breached passenger boat regulations near the Skelligs in Kerry.

Warm tributes have been paid to retired circuit court Judge John Clifford whose death took place on Thursday night at the age of 84.

A radiologist who told the court she was an insomniac appeared at Tralee District Court on 47 summonses in relation to forged sleeping tablet prescriptions.

A farmer found wavering across white lines on a 1974 tractor so poorly equipped it was barely recognised as a vehicle was again before Kenmare District Court yesterday. This time the vehicle involved was a car.

A 32-year-old man has appeared in court charged with dangerous driving causing the death of a cyclist on the N22 main Killarney to Tralee road on a Sunday morning last November.

Kerry farmer shot at his daughter’s partner after drinking

When two ambulance personnel arrived at the home of a “heartbroken” man at Rock Street, Kenmare, Co Kerry — who had been lying down on the town’s Main Street in an intoxicated state — he produced two knives.

A man who has at least 93 previous convictions was sentenced to seven months in jail at Tralee District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to stealing cash from a Killarney shop.

Four boy racers were yesterday fined a total €15,000 after gardaí in Kerry mounted a covert operation near Killarney two weeks ago.

A man became “so distracted” when a woman he took for a spin put her hand on his knee that he hit a bollard, overturned, and wrote off his car at a roundabout.

A man who stole two match tickets and other items during a visit to a Killarney pub on the morning of the Munster final last year between Cork and Kerry has been jailed.

An umpire was struck a number of times with a hurley “in the white heat of battle”, at a Division 2 match in Co Kerry, a court was told yesterday .

An intoxicated man arrested at a place called Church Ground made “a holy show of himself” in a Kerry village in January, Kenmare District Court heard yesterday.

A sheep farmer has been sent forward for trial to the Circuit Criminal Court, on two charges relating to having a Winchester rifle with a telescopic sight and aiming it at two gardaí during a siege at his Kerry farm.

A 31-year-old man with 50 previous convictions has been jailed for six months for the theft of a car fob, at Killarney District Court.