Car parks bring out the worst in people, says judge

A woman queuing up for a space in a disabled parking zone took photographs of a man who parked ahead of her and he grabbed her phone and threw it back into her car.

The disputed incident at the car park of Cork University Hospital became the subject of an hour-long trial at Cork District Court where 72-year-old John Finn of Glencool Lawn, Ballincollig, Co Cork, denied charges of engaging in threatening words or behaviour and assaulting Margaret Mulcahy, by taking her phone from her and throwing it in her face.

Judge Aingil Ní Chondúin commented afterwards: “Car parks bring out the worst in people”.

The judge said that it was all an unfortunate incident that got out of hand but she remarked in relation to the defendant, “he was wrong from start to finish”.

However, because John Finn had never been in trouble before the judge said that on payment of €300 to the injured party she would strike out the charges. Solicitor, Saundra McNally, confirmed payment of this amount shortly afterwards.

Ms O’Mahony said that she allowed herself an extra hour before her hospital appointment to wait for one of six disabled parking spots to become available.

She said that as she waited, the defendant drove in between two cars — which in her view was not an actual parking space, hitting one of the parked cars.

“I took a photo of him. He came around to the front of my vehicle. He put his hand in and tried to take my phone. We had a fight for the phone.

“He threw the phone back at me and hit me in the face and shouted language and called me names. He called me a fat ‘B’ and a nosy ‘B’ and all this. When he flung the phone back in the car it hit me in the face,” Ms O’Mahony said.

John Finn said he spoke to Ms O’Mahony before he moved into the space, something she denied. Mr Finn said: “I asked her politely could you please move slightly and I could get in. She said ‘there is no space, you cannot get in’.

“I knew it would be a tight squeeze. My bumper touched the car to my left. The lady shouted, ‘You’ve hit the car’,” he said.

He said it would have been easier if Ms O’Mahony had moved and he said that there was no damage to the parked car.

“She said she was taking photos of me. I asked her to desist. She thrust the camera into my face in an aggressive manner.

“I grabbed the phone and placed it on the passenger seat. I threw it across her lap. I told her she was being unreasonable,” Mr Finn said.

Inspector Vincent O’Sullivan said to the defendant: “You lost the head for a moment. You grabbed the phone off her and threw it back into the car and it caught her in the face. You were reckless in how you threw it.”

The defendant denied that.

Both parties had permits to park in disability parking zones.