McFadden to face court next month over driving offences

FORMER Westlife star Brian McFadden is due before a court in Dublin next month to face criminal prosecution for a number of alleged motoring offences.

The singer did not appear before Balbriggan District Court yesterday, despite the presence of several dozen fans who waited outside the courtroom in the north Dublin town hoping to catch a glimpse of the former pin-up star.

McFadden is charged with careless driving, breaking a 70mph speed limit and driving without reasonable consideration on the M1 motorway at Rowan’s Big, Balbriggan, Co Dublin on September 23, 2003.

Counsel for McFadden Kieran Kelly applied for an adjournment of the case with consent from gardaí.

Judge Cormac Dunne acceded to the request for the hearing to be put back to October 13 next after both sides indicated the case would go ahead on that date.

After his previous appearance before the same court last October, McFadden controversially dubbed the decision to adjourn the hearing as “a joke”, in frustration at not having the hearing finalised.

It came after his legal team failed to have the charges struck out on the basis that the incident had already been pending for more than two years.

The case has been adjourned on four separate occasions. Since his last court appearance, McFadden, 25, has sold his luxury home in Portmarnock where he lived with his estranged wife, former Atomic Kitten star Kerry Katona and their two daughters, four-year-old Molly and two-year-old Lily Sue.

It was reported yesterday Kerry had got engaged to her printer boyfriend Dave Cunningham.

Dropping Molly off for her first day of school in Warrington she proudly sported a €20,000 band encrusted with diamonds. “We’re very happy, I’ve never felt so good,” she said.