A Summerhill store assistant who claimed that she was “very shaken for three and a half hours” and had to take a coffee break after a 43-year-old man allegedly verbally abused her was challenged by a defending barrister who said that CCTV footage showed her serving two customers within a few minutes after the alleged incident. The man – Jonathan Barrett, Clondoogan, Summerhill – was before Trim District Court charged with alleged threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour at the Londis store Summerhill on 17th June 2023.
Store assistant Lena Reid told the court that the defendant had come to the deli counter in the store “with an aggressive demeanour”. She said he had called her a “c***” a number of times. She also said he had said “you’re nothing but a c***”.
Garda O’Connor said he had called to Londis and collected CCTV footage. He had then spoken to Jonathan Barrett about an alleged incident and invited him to make a cautioned statement. He refused. He had then issued a summons for Section 6 of the Public Order Act.
Barrister Niall Gallagher said that Ms Reid had said she was very shaken for two and a half hours after the incident “but two minutes later she is shown serving a customer”. She had served two customers in the minutes after the alleged incident, he said. She had also told the court that she had to go on the floor to get a coffee to calm down “but the CCTV shows her going back to work two minutes later”.
Under cross-examination from Mr Gallagher, Ms Reid said that there had been a previous incident when defendant complained about her “for not wearing gloves when picking up raw sausages”. She alleged that he had verbally abused her. She had then refused to serve him after he called her “a c***”, she said.
When Mr Gallagher put it to her that she had said she had been “petrified” and “shaken up for three and a half hours” yet was back at work within two minutes, she said “I went down on the floor to get a coffee and calm down”. Liam O’Neill, a butcher working in the store, told the court that defendant had called Ms Reid “a name”, had thrown his hands up in the air and walked out of the shop. Mr Gallagher said that while other witnesses had said his client had come in “shouting”, Mr O’Neill was saying that it “sounded to him like a mutter”.
Mr Gallagher told the judge that what had been described in court was not borne out by the CCTV footage and he asked for a dismissal of the charge.
Judge McKiernan said that there was a contradiction in the evidence. If she had a doubt then it must go in favour of the defendant and she dismissed the charge against Mr Barrett.
