A JUDGE has ruled after a number of adjournments that Ireland’s longest-serving serving politician is far too ill to give evidence in a case where a former town councillor is accused of assaulting a garda.
Judge Paul Kelly today(Fri) at a special sitting of Ballyshannon District Court fixed February 24 for final submissions in the case.
He was told that 81-year-old Donegal county councillor Sean McEniff was still in in intensive care the Mater private Hospital.
Following a legal dispute over distribution of medical documents Judge Kelly noted that intensive care consultant William Blunnie at the Mater said in a letter that it was his opinion that Mr McEniff would never be able to give evidence to standards required by a court of law.
The defence had been seeking him to give evidence.
After the judge told the court that the defence could still avail of a statement by Mr McEniff to gardai, defence counsel Johnnie McCoy, BL, said no further evidence was being offered and he sought a date for final submissions.
Mr McEniff, who has served in local politics for 55 years including on now-defunct Bundoran town council, has been in intensive care since he was flown back to Ireland from Gran Canaria in an induced coma following an accident in October.
Three members of one family face charges on an incident in a car park outside Bundoran council offices on February 10, 2014.
Former Bundoran Town Councillor Florence McNulty, 56, of The Palace, Main Street, Bundoran, has denied assaulting Garda Helen Munnelly.
Her son Joseph McNulty , 34, of Doran Close, Bundoran, and her husband Thomas McNulty, 57, of Main Street, Bundoran, have denied abusive or insulting behaviour on the same date.
The prosecution and defence evidence was delivered in previous hearings.
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