Court hears Upperchurch assault victim suffered a serious brain injury

The jury in the trial of a man accused of assault during a fight on a night out in Upperchurch was told the injured party suffered a serious brain injury as a result of the incident. 

Patrick Burke (21) of Roskeen, Drombane, is charged with assault causing serious harm to Ross Whelan and violent disorder on June 27, 2021, in Upperchurch. 

Mr Burke has pleaded not guilty at Nenagh Circuit Court to both charges but has offered a plea to a lesser offence of affray in place of violent disorder. 

Acting for the State Eileen O’Leary BL rejected the offer. 

CLOSING TIME

The proprietor of Kinnane’s Pub and Restaurant in Upperchurch, Fergal Butler, told the court that he attended to the injured party after attempting to break up the fight. 

He said both his and Pa’s Bar on the opposite side of the road were busy that night as there had been two matches that weekend, and Covid-19 restrictions had meant they had been closed for a long time. 

As Kinnane’s served food and Pa’s did not, people were moving between the two bars and there was a “good crowd out”.

Mr Butler said the crowd was mostly young people around 19 or 20 years and from both Upperchurch-Drombane, Cashel and surrounding areas. 

He said he knew or knew of most of them except for the Cashel crowd, whom he noticed when they came in in different colours. 

Mr Butler said he had been cautious of the mixing of groups but that there was no trouble throughout the evening.

“Everyone was behaving perfect. Nobody stood out as behaving the maggot. Everyone was in good form,” said Mr Butler.

At closing time, around 11:10pm, both bars emptied into the street. 

As Mr Butler was cleaning up, he heard “a commotion” outside and went out to break it up.

He told the court that he saw a group of lads “pushing and shoving,” but it was a minor incident.

He returned to the bar, but a few minutes later, he heard more noise outside. 

Mr Butler broke up a second scuffle and told the group from Cashel to go home. 

CCTV footage from outside the pub played in court showed a white car, which the court was told belonged to the group from Cashel driving past the bars.

The court heard that  Joseph O’Donoghue, who is not the defendant in this trial, steps out from the right-hand side toward the car and the court is told makes contact with the vehicle. 

The car swerves and comes to a stop in the middle of the road at the top of a hill before the group gets out of the car. 

The court saw a large crowd of people move toward the group, and a third fight breaks out.

Mr Butler told the court he attempted to break up the fight, which was happening both in and around the car. 

He said he could not identify any individual as people were trying to get in the car and he was just “randomly” pulling people out.

The car moved down the hill, and the fight continued at the bottom.

Mr Butler said that when he got to the bottom of the hill, the injured party, Mr Whelan, was on the ground unconscious.

The court heard that Mr Whelan came around, crying from the pain, and Mr Butler checked on him, noting a bump on the back of his head. 

Mr Butler instructed the driver of the car to go to A&E and got a phone number from someone in the car so he could stay in contact while they drove to the hospital. 

Following the incident, Mr Butler was contacted by Garda John McCormack, who requested the CCTV footage from the bar.

EMERGENCY CARE

Consultant in Emergency Medicine at University Hospital Limerick Dr Denis Shchetkovsky confirmed for the court that at 12:51am on June 28, 2021, the injured party, Ross Whelan arrived at the hospital.

The court heard that Mr Whelan had an injury to the left-hand side of his face and swelling on the back of his head. 

He also had lost consciousness for a few minutes and was assessed in the resuscitation unit. 

Ms O’Leary asked Dr Shchetkovsky if it was his opinion that Mr Whelan’s injuries were consistent with an assault.

Dr Shchetkovsky: “That is correct.”

Dr Shchetkovsky admitted Mr Whelan to the Medical Decision Unit, where he had a scan that showed small bleeds on his brain. 

A neurology consultant advised that he would require surgery, and as there are only two centres in the country with the facility to provide the trauma care needed, Mr Whelan was transported to University Hospital Cork. 

He was admitted under the care of Professor Michael O’Sullivan. 

Professor O’Sullivan told the court that a CT scan had shown bruising on Mr Whelan’s brain, a “collection of blood” and a fracture to the temporal bone.

He was concerned that this would worsen in the days after Mr Whelan’s admission and scans then confirmed “blossoming of the contusions”.

The injured party suffered epileptic seizures and swelling on the brain that had to be controlled with surgery. 

The surgeon removed a section of Mr Whelan’s skull to allow his “brain to expand”. The doctors later performed a cranioplasty whereby they manufactured an artificial skull to replace the piece removed during treatment for the swelling.

Following his surgery, Mr Whelan complained of headaches and impaired cognitive function for a number of months, including the loss of memory for up to a month.

He had to take a year out of college, was not allowed to drive and could not return to sport. 

Doctors continued to use drugs to control the swelling in his brain and he complained of chest pains which the doctors could not find a cause.

MOVEMENTS

The court heard from three witnesses who were outside the bar on the night of the incident. 

Ben Ely, Sam Quinlan and Stephen Ferncombe identified various people from the CCTV footage and assisted the jury in following the timeline of events.

Much of their evidence at the questioning of Ms O’Leary to the court revolved around Joseph O’Donogue - who pleaded guilty to affray in June 2023.

Ms O’Leary said in her opening statement that the jury would hear that the row outside the pub was instigated when Mr O’Donoghue had been “bothering” people in the pub.
 

The State asked a number of questions about his behaviour in the lead up to the incident. 

Mr Ely told the court he was out with his friends on the night of the incident.

Mr O’Donoghue was “fairly drunk” and had taken a number of paracetamol tablets from one of Mr Ely’s friends who had not stopped him so as to avoid a confrontation, the court heard.

Mr Ely was also able to identify the defendant Mr Burke, from the CCTV so the jury could track his movements during the scuffles. 

Sam Quinlan told the court that he intervened in the second scuffle and had asked Mr O’Donoghue to apologise for his part, which he did. 

Mr Quinlan told the court that he saw the car being struck but could not say by whom. 

When the third fight broke out, he stayed out of it, but was able to see the defendant fighting.

He later heard that Mr Whelan was injured. 

Mr Stephen Ferncombe told the court that he saw the Mr O’Donogue exchange words with the injured party earlier in the night. 

“It didn’t look like a friendly conversation,” said Mr Ferncombe. 

Mr Ferncombe identified a number of individuals, including Mr Whelan on the CCTV during the fight.

He said he knew who Mr Whelan was because he was wearing a black top with pink sleeves.

However, on second look at the CCTV and on questioning by the barrister for the defence Mr Sean O’Mahoney BL, Mr Ferncombe said he could not be certain that Mr Whelan was a person fighting, as a second person was wearing the same top. 

The trial is ongoing and set to continue over the next week.