Claims man used paragliding skills to injure himself

A man denied assaulting his daughter’s ex-husband, claiming the injuries were self-inflicted and that the man used paragliding skills to throw himself into shrubbery outside his ex’s house.

Patrick McCarthy, aged 63, of The Estuary, Church Rd, Carrigaline, Co Cork, and Andrew Sheehan, aged 37, from Lisnagoureen, Castletownroche, Co Cork, went on trial at Cork District Court yesterday, with each man charged with assaulting the other.

Mr Sheehan was at the house on the day of the disputed incident of May 27 for a domestic matter and yesterday Judge Olann Kelleher dismissed the charge against him. He found the facts proved against McCarthy, noting he had gotten to the age of 63 with no conviction and he adjourned the matter until December 5 to see how matters would settle down.

He did not accept McCarthy’s contention that Mr Sheehan’s injuries were self-inflicted.

McCarthy had claimed that Mr Sheehan engaged in bizarre and crazy behaviour on the day.

“I never punched him, I never kicked him,” said McCarthy. “The injury to his arm must have been from him diving backwards on to concrete outside the house and diving a second time in the shrubbery.

“We were frightened out of our lives at what he was doing. We didn’t know what he was going to do next.”

McCarthy said that he saw Mr Sheehan looking over his shoulder at shrubbery to find a place where he could throw himself down and make a soft landing. The older man also suggested that paragliding skills enabled Mr Sheehan “to fall backwards more easily” and claimed that Mr Sheehan “attempted to frame me for assault”.

Mr Sheehan’s solicitor, Annmarie Sheridan, said her client’s phone record showed him making and receiving several phone calls during a 20-minute period when he was allegedly giving himself serious facial injuries after the disputed events on the drive. Mr Sheehan also told his solicitor: “He [McCarthy] swung me around like a schoolyard tussle and swung me into the ditch.

“He was kicking me viciously, kicking me in the face, he kicked me everywhere he could.”