Accused: Cousin asked my father for €20,000 to drop case

A man on trial for biting part of his cousin’s ear off said he never assaulted the relative and claimed yesterday that the complainant had asked his father for €20,000 to drop the case.

Patrick Able Quilligan, aged 26, with an address at 12 Pine Court, Ashleigh Downs, Tralee, Co Kerry, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault causing harm to a namesake, Patrick Pedlar Quilligan, a middle-aged man, at Commons Rd, Cork, on December 3, 2008.

Asked by Desmond Hayes, defending, if he carried out the assault, Able said there had never been any physical confrontation between them.

“The only communication between myself and the injured party was when he contacted my father and asked for €20,000,” he said.

The defendant’s father, John Quilligan testified yesterday, that Pedlar rang him and said: “If you give me €20,000 I won’t appear in court, this will go away.” “I thought about it,” said Mr Quilligan. “It would mean my son would not have to come to court. I decided that I know my son, I know his nature, he would never do anything like this.”

Pedlar denied on the opening day of the trial that he had ever made such a call but claimed that someone had offered him €10,000 to drop it but he did not want money, he wanted justice.

Ray Boland, prosecuting, put it to Able that, after being questioned about the incident in December 2008, he left the country and was arrested in Sweden on a European arrest warrant. He said he had gone to Sweden to get work and did not try to fight the extradition.

Mr Boland said Able’s position appeared to be that he was in the McDonald’s car park at the relevant time but had nothing to do with the assault. “It is just unlucky that you were passing through McDonald’s at the time Pedlar was assaulted?”

Able replied: “Yes.”

“You did attack him and you did bite off portion of his ear,” Mr Boland said.

Able replied: “I did not.”

His brother Francie, described by Pedlar as punching him from the other side as Able bit him, testified that he was in the area but had nothing to do with the assault. “We were in the area of McDonald’s but I don’t know what happened to his ear to be honest with you,” said Francie Quilligan.

Pedlar told gardaí in his statement: “He took a bite out of my ear, chewed it up, and spat at back at me.”

Pedlar said there was a disagreement between the families going back a couple of years to when a child smashed windows in another family’s caravan.

The trial continues today when Judge Donagh McDonagh will formally put the jury in charge of the case to deliberate on their verdict.