Victim of trespass in Laois says he was beginning to feel like the perpetrator 

A householder who engaged in restorative justice with a man who trespassed on his property said he was beginning to feel like the perpetrator in court. 

Brendan Coss (27) of 90 Kirwan Park, Mountmellick, pleaded guilty to trespass at an address in Kirwan Park on March 16, 2025. 

Solicitor Josephine Fitzpatrick said the victim was in court and there was a restorative justice report. However, she acknowledged that her client didn’t have a €400 donation for charity. 

Judge Susan Fay noted the victim had been in court a week earlier when the defendant didn’t appear. 

Ms Fitzpatrick said “if we are allowed one  further week we will have the money”. 

When asked why the money wasn’t in court, Ms Fitzpatrick said the man was still in the process of paying off money owed from a previous court case. 

Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby said the injured party wasn’t happy. Judge Fay said “this is terrible messy”. 

Ms Fitzpatrick said “I am not happy myself”. She said her client had engaged with the probation services and restorative justice. 

Judge Fay said had the court known the man wouldn’t have the money it could have “indulged him” and adjourned it to a date when the money was available. 

Ms Fitzpatrick said she hadn’t been aware that the money wouldn’t be available but she said it was in everyone’s interest to allow more time. 

The injured party gave evidence and said the €400 charitable donation was what had been agreed. “We are good people. We are willing to give Brendan the benefit of the doubt”, he said. He asked for a guarantee that the money would be paid by the end of the week. 

Judge Fay said there was no court sitting on Thursday or following Monday.  She  said she would like a victim impact statement in relation to the case. The man said he had completed a victim impact statement through the restorative justice process. 

The man said the case had been in court on four occasions and on the second occasion he had read about it in the Leinster Express. 

“We were supposed to have been put out by the fact that the doorbell rang very early in the morning,” he explained. 

“My wife and I are the victims in the case. I actually feel like I am the perpetrator sitting here by the way we are being treated”, he stated. 

Judge Fay asked the man if he had found restorative justice helpful. “Very much, yes,” he replied. 

He said the report in the local paper stated that the doorbell had been rung very early in the morning. “The doorbell was never rang”, the man said. 

“If you are saying there is an issue with that, you talk to the Sergeant about that”, said Judge Fay, who explained that there were procedures which needed to be gone through. She told the man she would ask the court presenter for the facts when she is finalising the matter. 

Sgt Kirby said the man had been “very good” in dealing with the matter and everything would have been dealt with if the defendant had arrived in court with the money. 

At the previous sitting of Portlaoise District Court last October, Ms Fitzpatrick had said the man had rung the doorbell.  She said the “primary concern here was that the doorbell was rung so early” in the morning.  

“The accused was looking for a dog that escaped from a friend’s house,” Ms Fitzpatrick had said at the time.

Judge Susan Fay adjourned the case back to Portlaoise District Court on May 11 and marked it peremptory against the accused.