Two men accused of using hurley sticks to attack three young men they suspected of attacking their elderly parents’ home have been found not guilty.
Father and son Shaun and Shane Arbuckle appeared before Letterkenny Circuit Court charged with a number of offences.
The pair are charged in relation to an incident at Dundrain, Burnfoot, on May 22, 2019.
Shaun Arbuckle (46) was charged with assaulting Sean Fisher. He is also charged with criminal damage to a Volkswagen Jetta.
He is further charged with, while committing or appearing to be about to commit an offence, or in the course of a dispute or fight, producing in a manner likely unlawfully to intimidate another person an article, namely a hurley, capable of inflicting serious injury.
Shane Arbuckle (27) is charged with causing criminal damage to a Volkswagen Jetta and also of producing an article, namely a hurley, capable of inflicting serious injury.
The men were accused of chasing three young men in a car after suspecting they had smashed a window of Patrick Arbuckle’s home in Burnfoot on May 22nd, 2019.
The three men gave accounts of how Shane and Sean Arbuckle attacked them after accusing them of throwing a stone from a local quarry at the window of their family home and terrorising their elderly parents.
Leon McDaid and Sean Fisher leaving court.
However, having sat over the five day trial, the jury took just over an hour to find the two accused not guilty of all charges.
There was heckling from the back of the courtroom from the alleged injured men’s family and friends after the verdicts were delivered.
The court heard from Mr Patrick Arbuckle, the father and grandfather of the two accused men.
He told how on the night just after 9pm at his home at Birdstown, between Burnfoot and Muff, he was making his wife tea when he heard a loud bang.
When he went to investigate he found a front window of his home had been smashed and a large stone was out on the street.
Mr Arbuckle said he heard footsteps and boys getting into a car, which he thought was grey in colour, and driving away.
He called both 999 and also his son Shaun.
Mr Arbuckle, who is in his 80s, said he was shaken but his wife, who is in a wheelchair, was left terrified by the incident.
He added that his family’s life had changed since the incident.
Shaun Arbuckle and his son Shane arrived at the house at Birdstown a short time later and went out looking for the ‘grey’ car involved in the incident.
Martin Harkin leaving court.
Retired Garda Kevin Coyle, a former scenes of crime investigator, gave evidence of the scenes at the Arbuckle family home and also at the scene of the alleged attack.
Over the course of a number of days, the three alleged victims, Martin Harkin, Sean Fisher and Leon McDaid, all gave accounts of what happened on the night.
They told how they were just driving around the back roads between Muff and Burnfoot and had intended to go back into Derry where they lived.
Martin Harkin, who was originally from Muff and 18-year-old at the time, was driving his VW Jetta at the time of the incident.
The men told how they were driving about when another car, a Renault Megane, suddenly came behind them at speed and was flashing its lights.
They initially thought the other car wanted to race but the Renault Megane car being driven by the Arbuckles caught up with them and overtook them and pulled across in front of them.
This resulted in the VW Jetta clipping into the second car bringing both cars to a halt.
Suddenly two men jumped out of the car and began shouting at the men accusing them of breaking a window at the Arbuckle home at Birdstown.
Evidence was given that two men then got out of the car and one, later identified as Shane Arbuckle, jumped onto the bonnet and began smashing the windscreen with a hurley.
The other man, identified as Sean Arbuckle, went to the driver’s window and started screaming at the driver of the car, Martin McDaid.
As the stand-off continued, evidence was given that Sean Fisher was hit with a hurley stick while the car radio was also damaged.
The court was told that all three young men were covering their faces and a man in the back, later identified as Leon McDaid kept shouting “We’re sorry, we’re sorry.”
As Mr McDaid shouted this, evidence was given that the two young men in the front of the car turned around and told him to shut up.
Shane and Shaun Arbuckle demanded that they open the boot of the VW Jetta saying they believed there were more rocks in the back of the vehicle.
However, when the boot was opened there were no rocks.
Martin McDaid also claimed that one of the men threatened to have them shot.
CCTV of the incident was played which purportedly showed a man standing on the bonnet of the VW Jetta smashing the windscreen but this could not be seen.
All three young men in the car were cross examined by barristers Sean McGee and Damien Crawford.
Mr McGee, for Shaun Arbuckle, noted that all three men had noted that his client had a tattoo on his neck.
He asked all three if would it surprise them to discover that his client did not have any tattoo on his neck.
In response, Mr McDaid said that Shaun Arbuckle must have had the tattoo taken off.
The court was also told that at least two of the men, Martin McDaid and Sean Fisher (through his parents) had commenced personal injury claims against the Arbuckles for up to €60,000.
Mr Crawford put it to all three men that they had spoken to each other after the incident and that their answers were “rehearsed” but this was denied.
Various scenes of crime evidence was also given to the five day trial by various Gardai including Garda Martin Hooks, Garda Donal Corry and Garda Alan Reid.
After all the evidence was given, both the prosecution and defence barristers summed up their cases.
Prosecuting barrister for the state, Ms Fiona Crawford asked the jury to remember the words of Leon McDaid when he said himself and his two friends were simply at ‘the wrong time in the wrong place’.
She also asked the jury members that if their mother and father’s home was attacked and they were fearful of further attacks, would they not stay at home and protect their parents rather than going out and “do an act of vigilantism in the area”.
Ms Crawford finally put it to the jury that the Arbuckles were not entitled to the benefit of the claim of defence in this case.
“An act of defence cannot be an act of defence,” she said.
Barrister for Shaun Arbuckle, Mr Sean McGee, said the fact that all three men found themselves in a grey car close to the scene of the incident was a “massive and unbelievable coincidence” was a “difficult sell”.
The fact they say that this was just a pure coincidence was “unbelievable”, added Mr McGee.
He suggested that the fact that all three said his client had a tattoo on his neck may not seem like a big deal.
He said this would suggest that this suggest that all three colluded in their evidence.
“I’d suggest you can’t rely on a word they say,” he said.
“You’ve seen how they have conducted themselves and can you rely on what they say? I’d suggest you couldn’t,” Mr McGee told the jury members.
Barrister for Shane Arbuckle, Mr Damien Crawford, asked the jury to put themselves in the shoes of his client.
He said he came to his grandparents home after it had been attacked and saw his grandfather trembling and his grandmother terrified in her wheelchair.
He heard there was a grey car involved and found three young men in a grey car nearby and asked the jury if it was reasonable that the Arbuckles should think these were the men involved.
He said the only reason Shane Arbuckle was there was because of his grandparents and not because of a row at a dance or that he didn’t like VW Jettas or anything like that.
Judge John Aylmer then gave the jury his charge in which he gave an overall synopsis of the case and what was claimed on each side as well as an overall outline of the evidence.
After almost an hour and a half of deliberations, the jury returned with a not guilty count on all counts for each man.