Solicitor longs for days when people had manners

“God be with the days when people had manners around the town,” a solicitor declared yesterday in defence of a man involved in a fracas outside Abrakebabra on St Patrick St in Cork.

Frank Buttimer made the comment at Cork District Court in defence of Glen Walsh, 24, of 87 Connolly Rd, Ballyphehane, who denied a charge of assault causing harm to Jamie Martin, aged 22, on October 29, 2016.

Mr Walsh had no previous convictions and is saving to do a master’s degree. He claimed that the only reason he became involved in the incident in the first place was when he heard his then girlfriend being insulted by a man he had never seen.

He said the man told him go away and “take his slut with him”.

Mr Walsh said he approached Mr Martin in order to give him a fright and get him to apologise.

“I must have frightened him too much because he punched me in the jaw, he just skimmed me,” he said. “I retaliated. I threw one punch back.”

Mr Buttimer said: “It does challenge one if one is in the presence of one’s significant other when someone is behaving like a pup. I propose that it is not a wrong act to call up someone else’s behaviour for what it is. God be with the days when people had manners around the town. Are we not allowed to say ‘cut out that carry on’.”

Mr Martin said he and his girlfriend, Melissa Flynn, and two other couples left a nightclub to get food at Abrakebabra. He said there was rubbish in the form of takeaway food on the ground and that he and his girlfriend put it in the bin .

“Five minutes later I remember smoking a rollie. That is all remember,” he said.

Mr Buttimer said that, following a verbal exchange, it got more heated and Mr Walsh only punched the Mr Martin because Mr Martin) swung out at Mr Walsh. Mr Martin denied this.

Mr Martin said he was unconscious after the blow. Inspector Brian O’Donovan asked him about his injuries.

“I got scratches all down my neck, a hairline fracture to the jaw, stitches to my skull and a busted lip,” he said. “I would say I was hit four or five times.

“It is not that he hit me once, he hit the shit out of me.”

Judge O’Leary told Mr Martin not to speak like that in Cork District Court.

Ms Flynn told the court: “Jamie was smoking a rollie. He got hit to the face and fell on the ground. Glen was over Jamie and was hitting him. I pushed Glen off Jamie and I hit Glen.

“One of his buddies came over to Glen and said: ‘What are you after doing? Run.’ ”

Mr Buttimer said that when Mr Martin went to the ground, Mr Walsh tried to revive him.

After hearing from other parties and noting Mr Walsh’s educational attainments and ambitions and his lack of previous convictions, Judge O’Leary said he would give him the benefit of a dismissal under the Probation of Offenders Act if he gathered €2,000 for the injured party by January 2.