The father of the 12-year old boy allegedly assaulted with a stick by former Clare hurler Niall Gilligan phoned him from a hospital emergency department to say “you just viciously attacked my son”, a court has heard.
On the fourth day of the trial at Ennis Circuit Court, the boy’s father gave evidence of a phone call he made to the accused as his son was being treated for his injuries by medics on the evening of 5 October 2023.
The father told the jury today that he got Mr Gilligan’s phone number that evening after his son had told him what had occurred earlier, where Mr Gilligan is accused of assaulting the boy with a stick.
Mr Gilligan, aged 48, of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, denies the charge of assault causing harm with a stick at the Jamaica Inn hostel, Sixmilebridge on 5 October 2023.
In evidence, the father said that he phoned Mr Gilligan and said: “I said I am currently in A&E with my son who you just viciously attacked.”
The father said that Mr Gilligan did not respond to the allegation.
The father said that he first brought his son to a VHI clinic at Raheen, Limerick.
He said: “Once they (medical staff) started cutting his clothes off him they were finding more and more injuries.
“They found he had soiled himself which led them to believe that he was unconscious at some stage.”
He said that medics at the VHI Clinic made the decision that the boy should be transferred by ambulance to the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
The boy’s father said that he did not believe his son’s initial story that he had fallen off his bike.
“I definitely didn’t think that he fell off a bike. He was covered head to toe in muck.”
He said that his son had his jacket pulled down over a cut on his arm “and I could see blood coming from the cut”.
The father said that his son “had a swollen hand and he was limping. He was talking quite fast as well and he was pale, so I imagine adrenaline and shock.”
He said that once they got to the VHI clinic, his son told him what had happened earlier.
The trial continues before a jury of seven men and five women.