Jury finds Waterford man guilty of stabbing teen
The trial was held at Waterford Courthouse.
Anthony Connolly, of 43 Priory Lawn, Waterford City, had pleaded not guilty to six separate charges, including assault contrary to Section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences to the Person Act and production of a knife.
He stood before Judge Eugene O'Kelly and a jury of six men and six women at Waterford Circuit Court in the case that concerned the stabbing of a 16-year-old boy. His brother Christopher Connolly, also of 43 Priory Lawn, was on trial for a charge of making a threat to kill, but the jury returned a not guilty verdict on the single count.
The events occurred on the night of June 29, 2022, in Clonard Park, Ballybeg.
Anthony Connolly told Gardaí during interview that he had attended his grandmother's funeral on the day of the incident. He stated that after the mass he went to Paddy Browne's pub at around 3.30pm and left the premises at around 12.40am. He claimed to have had five or six drinks during that time.
When returning home, he claimed that three young men, all known to him, were riding bicycles nearby. Connolly claimed that he went to their home to confront them but did not have a knife in his possession.
The brother of the victim told the court that on the night of the incident, at around 1am, he called his cousin and asked him to come to his house. He said that he was at home with a friend, his sister and his partner. When the cousin arrived, the three men went for a cycle, the court was told.
Ms Sarah-Jane Comerford put it to the witness that the trio had not taken the most direct route to their supposed destination.
She suggested that when his cousin arrived at the house, he told them that the Connelly brothers had chased him, and their cycle was to confront the pair.
Ms Comerford put it to the witness that her client had not threatened to kill them.
“When he was chasing us up the road, he said he was going to kill us,” responded the witness.
Ms Comerford said her client had said they had not stopped at the boxing club while chasing the young men, as the witness had indicated, and that while he had said “he was sick of it”, he made no threat.
The witness responded that he had threatened them. He described how Anthony Connolly was running toward them with his hands in his pockets, and they ran into the witness's house.
The witness told the court said he was last in, and thinking everyone was in behind him, he went to close the door.
He saw his brother and Anthony Connolly fall to the ground but did not see Mr Connolly being struck with a shovel.
The victim’s brother described picking up a billhook that was inside the house and swinging the blunt end at Mr Connolly.
Ms Comerford ask the witness if Gardaí had asked to see the billhook when they came to take his statement.
He replied that they hadn’t, but he had told them that he had used it and had shown them.
The barrister for the defendant indicated for the jury the photos of the shovel with blood on it and other “blood splatter” photos, as well as the layout of the house.
“I don’t see it there,” said Ms Comerford.
The witness told the court that Gardaí had seen it, and he does not know where it is now.
Ms Comerford put it to him that her client did not have a knife, but when he went to the property, the young people there “scattered,” and he was struck with a shovel.
She said he does not recall being struck with the billhook and asked the witness if he had made contact with Mr Connolly. The witness said he could have.
Ms Comerford suggested that the witness had “mistakenly” struck his brother with the hook, causing the wound to his leg. “You were terrified your brother was going to die, and it was your fault,” said Ms Comerford. The witness rejected this saying had he done so, that it would have slashed his brother's leg, instead of piercing it.
Representing Christopher Connolly, Gareth Hayden BL, asked why the witness had invited his cousin to the house.
He said it was the night of his grandmother’s funeral and he had not attended the gathering after the service.
He confirmed that his cousin had told him that on his way over, he was followed by the Connolly brothers, who were whistling at him as they went for a cycle toward Ardmore Park.
The witness told the court that when they returned home, Christopher was waiting for them, so he began recording him on his phone.
Mr Hayden asked if his client had stayed outside the garden, and the witness said: “No, he came in halfway in the garden.”
When Mr Hayden suggested the witness had not told Gardaí that, the witness said he had. Mr Hayden put it to the witness that his client had told him he didn’t want any trouble but the witness disagreed.
Mr Hayden read aloud for the jury the witness's statement to Gardaí in which he said Anthony Connolly came in through the gate with a knife and he, the witness, picked up a billhook.
The victim, he said in his statement, had hit Anthony with a shovel, and they both fell to the ground.
The victim shouted that he had been stabbed, and Anthony shouted, “he would fix them,” while the group shouted at the defendant that “he had stabbed a child".
The witness said they then carried the victim into the house and confirmed for the court that Mr Connolly had run out of the driveway.
The jury heard the 999 call made by the witness after the stabbing, in which he said that he had been stabbed and that the blood was 'pumping' out of his body. His blood-covered clothes were shown in court.
The jury heard from medical records that the victim had stated to medical staff at UHW that he “fell back and was stabbed with a breadknife”.
The victim disputed the veracity of the medical notes, saying he had never given that account to medical staff, but instead said he was stabbed with a “silver” kitchen knife.
The medical records further state that the victim presented to the emergency department with a “traumatic laceration to the right upper thigh” but that no major blood vessels had been punctured.
Under questioning, the victim claimed that he had left his house on the 29th of June at around 8:30pm to walk some of the eight or nine dogs, which his family owned at the time.
The jury heard from the victim’s sister, who said that upon encountering Anthony Connolly in their garden he had threatened members of her family group saying, “Big boys, if you want your trouble you can have it.”
The witness told the court that Anthony Connolly had run up to the garden and shouted “I have her, I have her. I’m gonna stab her”, before chasing her while swinging a knife.
The jury were shown a pair of pink check pyjama bottoms with a hole in the upper leg area, which she said was a cut created by the defendant when he “swiped” at her with a knife. She echoed her brother’s testimony that Anthony Connolly had possessed a “silver knife” and that her brother had picked up a shovel and hit Anthony Connolly in the face.
She said that following the strike of the shovel, both the victim and Anthony Connolly fell to the floor and that was when the defendant stabbed her brother in the leg.
She said that her elder brother had emerged from the house and “may” have had a billhook but that she did not know if he struck anyone with it. She rejected the notion that it was her brother who caused the injury to the victim with the billhook.
Garda Kevin Dingley said that he attended the scene of the incident in Ballybeg on the July 29, 2022 and applied a tourniquet to the leg of the victim before being dispatched to the house of Anthony and Christian Connolly.
Arriving at the Connolly residence, Garda Dingley told the jury the house was in darkness and that Anthony Connolly opened the door to the Gardaí with an injury to his forehead. The Garda said Connolly attempted to close the door to the Gardaí before turning and climbing the stairs.
The jury heard that the Gardaí apprehended Connolly after he entered an upstairs bedroom using pepper spray into the room in which Connolly’s young daughter was located.
Garda Dingley did not accept the suggestion that Connolly was afraid of the Armed Support Unit gardaí.
Following the apprehension of Anthony Connolly, his mother who was present at the property, collapsed and received medical attention.
The jury returned a guilty verdict against Anthony Connolly on three counts: for the assault of the teenager, production of an article, and production of an article capable of inflicting serious injury (to unlawfully intimidate another person).
The judge thanked the jury for their “most important duty” and that they had “vindicated the right of the accused person to have a trial by their community.”
Following the jury’s verdict, an application was made for bail for a period of one week was heard in order to allow the defendant to communicate the impact of the sentence to his young daughter and the investigating officer Sergeant Michael Canavan objected to the application.
Sergeant Canavan said he had “serious concerns of a reescalation in Ballybeg” and warned that there could be “some backlash” following the judgment.
Sergeant Canavan said that a decision to grant bail could make a “very tense, volatile situation much worse.”
“We are dealing with a man who has been found guilty of stabbing a 16-year-old child,” Sergeant Canavan said and outlined his “very real concerns” that granting bail could have.
Judge Eugene O'Kelly said he was concerned by the “description of the situation in Ballybeg” and denied the application for bail.
