Cattle on the run lead to brawl between neighbours over fencing

Trevor Deane, aged 34, of Clounties, Dunmanway, Co Cork, denied two charges arising out of the incident on July 29, 2016, when it was claimed he assaulted a neighbour, Michael Casey, causing harm and also assaulted Mr Casey’s brother, Patrick.

Michael Casey, who runs a car valeting business, gave evidence that at noon on the day he saw five cattle belonging to Deane in his field. He said he failed to make contact with Deane by phone but got the cattle out. At 5pm, he saw between 10 and 12 cows back in his field. He tried to return them but gave up and rang Deane.

“I said put up your fence, I am fed up with this craic,” the witness told Clonakilty District Court.

Mr Casey said Deane arrived and then started calling out to him, saying “out in the road” and “are you a coward, or what?”

He claimed Mr Deane accused him of being “the cause of the trouble”.

“He started jumping around the road like Muhammad Ali,” Mr Casey said. “Next thing, he made a drive for me.

“He said ‘you’re a coward’. I said you are only looking for compensation off your neighbour.”

Mr Casey claimed Deane kicked him and then struck him “a belt of a fist”, knocking him on the ground. He said he managed to roll away, before his brother, Pat, who was also present, shouted at Deane to stop.

Michael Casey said Deane’s father, Reggie, was present and had accused Mr Casey of “blackguarding” his son.

“I said you had right to have drowned your young fella, we wouldn’t have these problems at all,” Mr Casey said, in the witness box. He said after that exchange “we got stuck into a row”.

Images of cuts and scrapes on Mr Casey, taken later that day by gardaí, were shown in court.

Mr Casey denied there had been issues between the two families for decades and said he could only count four years since 2002 when cattle had not strayed on to his property.

Patrick Casey said in evidence that Deane seemed “in a violent rage” and after a discussion about the fencing, Deane hit Michael Casey and then hit him in the ear. He said Mr Deane “sort of kicked the legs out from under [his brother]”, who landed in the dyke.

“I started roaring at him and said ‘stop, for God’s sake, you’ll kill him’.”

Deane’s solicitor Eamonn Fleming queried why Mr Casey’s initial statement to gardaí gave different estimates on how many cattle were in his field at both times that day while, in evidence, Trevor Deane claimed the Caseys had been abusive to him since he was a teenager and denied going to Mr Casey’s place at all that day.

He said he had been in Skibbereen Mart — producing a sales invoice to prove it — before returning home for his dinner and then going to an outside farm in Coppeen.

Deane’s partner Siobhán gave a similar timeline for the day and his father Reggie said, after returning from the mart, he had fallen asleep in front of the television.

Garda Kay Gaynor said she tried to discuss the incident with Trevor Deane but was unsuccessful and when she met Reggie Deane she said he became abusive.

Judge Mary Dorgan said “good fences make good neighbours”, adding: “Cows being cows, they break out.”

She said Mr Casey’s “drowning” comment was “a terribly inflammatory thing to say”.

“I am not impressed with the evidence I heard from either side,” she added.

Deane was convicted on both charges and was bound to the peace for 24 months and fined €350.

*This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.*