UPDATE: Offaly trial hears man begged his attackers to stop

A MAN told a trial at Tullamore Circuit Court that he begged two men to stop attacking him when they entered his bedroom when he was asleep.

Derek Tuite was the second man to given evidence of being assaulted on September 1, 2019 by Dylan Coughlan, who has pleaded not guilty to a number of charges.

Mr Coughlan (22), Armstrong Grove, Clara, denies charges alleging aggravated burglary, assaulting John Sheerin, causing him harm, and threatening to kill or cause serious injury to John Sheerin, at 3 Kinclare, Clara on September 1, 2019.

Mr Coughlan has also pleaded not guilty to assaulting Derek Tuite at 5 Railway View, Clara, and to producing a bat, on the same date.

Mr Tuite told the trial he had been drinking in his house at Railway View with two men, Dylan Coughlan and Wayne Dolan, and he asked them to leave because he wanted to go to bed.

When eventually they left he said they asked him to leave the door unlocked because they'd be back in a while,

Mr Tuite said he ignored them, locked the door and went to bed and some hours later he woke up and the two men had surrounded him and were shouting at him, asking why he locked the door.

He said Wayne Dolan jumped on him, put a knife to his neck and punched him and Dylan Coughlan, who had a pole or a bar in his hand, kicked him on the head.

He recalled saying to them: “Please stop, please stop, I done nothing wrong.”

He said he was beaten for a while and there was blood all over his bed sheets. He also remembered them telling him they had beaten someone up and taken money from him.

They showed him the money and he said it was about €200 or €300 each. He also said he was told by the men that they had used a pink fluffy cover from a hot water bottle as a mask.

Mr Tuite said: “I didn't ask too much detail. I was in fear of my life.”

When they went downstairs after beating him up they asked for clothes but he could not remember what they borrowed.

The following morning he was afraid to ask them to leave and after Dylan Coughlan bought some alcohol they went to the train station where gardai stopped and searched them.

Cross-examined by Colm Smyth, SC, defending Mr Coughlan, Mr Tuite said he had been arrested by the gardai and questioned in connection with the burglary at Kinclare but he said he had nothing to do with it.

When Mr Smyth put it to him that he had put Mr Coughlan “in the frame” for a crime, he denied it, and he also said that a large shovel shown to him in court did not belong to him.

Mr Tuite also denied taking drugs on the night he was drinking with the two men and indicated that a reference he made to gardai about “A bit of white, cocaine”, was related to the night before because he had been with the other two for the weekend.

The jury of six women and six men also heard from two gardai who called to Mr Sheerin's house shortly after 6am on September 1, 2019.

They said they found a glove in a fence behind the man's house and also told the jury the victim said the men who attacked him had nylon tights over their heads.

Kevin White, BL, prosecuting, detailed a medical report from an emergency medicine consultant at Tullamore Hospital which said Mr Sheerin was referred there after an alleged assault.

He had a minor abrasion to the scalp, bruising on his lower back and an abrasion to his thigh. An X-ray of his spine excluded a fracture and it was expected that Mr Sheerin's injuries would be resolved within two to three weeks. Pain relief was prescribed.

The next witness for the State, Alex Guilfoyle, said he had been working in the Londis shop in Clara when he served Dylan Coughlan, who he knew from school.

He remembered being given a €50 note when Mr Coughlan bought items and he estimated the man had €300 or €400 made up of €50 notes.

Mr Guilfoyle also recalled a conversation with Mr Coughlan where the accused said he had been out the night before and beat a young lad. The accused said when he woke up he found he had the money.

Replying to Mr Smyth, Mr Guilfoyle accepted that Mr Coughlan had said he did not beat anyone up.

Detective Sergeant Caroline Lyng gave evidence of going to the railway station in Clara at 12.20pm on September 1 and seeing Derek Tuite standing with Dylan Coughlan on the platform.

Mr Coughlan was searched for drugs and the gardai found €345 in cash, comprising six €50 notes, two €20 notes and one €5 note.

The accused told the gardai that the money was from his dole and that he had spent the previous night at his grandparents' house.

Wayne Dolan was also at the station, further down the platform, and when he was searched €250 was found. Derek Tuite had no money.

Earlier in the trial, John Sheerin (70), said two men had beaten him with shovels and put a knife to his throat when they entered his house at Kinclare and woke him at about 5am on September 1, 2019.

The men came into his bedroom and demanded money and he said they made him lie on his stomach and stood on each side of the bed beating him with shovels.

Mr Sheerin, who lived alone in the house, said he was hit about 10 times and one fellow put a knife to his throat and said he wanted money.

The elderly man went down to the kitchen and a knife was put to his back and he was told they would stick it in him if he was not given money.

His wallet was in his coat on the back of a chair in the kitchen and the men took €700 and the wallet, which contained his travel pass and medical card.

Opening the trial, Mr White told the jury that they need not concern themselves with Mr Dolan because he was being dealt with in another court.