'I just heard the screams out of him,' boy tells gardai of his friend, 12, in Niall Gilligan court case

A boy told Gardaí that he could hear his 12-year old friend screaming as former All-Star and Clare All-Ireland winning hurler, Niall Gilligan hit him with a stick.

In a videoed interview with specialist Gardai played to the jury today at Ennis Circuit Court, the boy said that his friend "got attacked by a man" who had “a smooth, wooden stick kind of a thing and he just started hitting him with it".

The boy said his father later showed him a photo of Niall Gilligan and the boy confirmed that the man who attacked his friend was the accused.

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Mr Gilligan (48) of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge denies the assault causing harm with a stick of the boy at the Jamaica Inn hostel, Sixmilebridge on October 5, 2023.

The two 12 year olds had been exploring an abandoned Jamaica Inn hostel after 5pm on October 5.

Mr Gilligan owned the Jamaica Inn hostel at the time and the jury has been told that in the days leading up to October 5, it had been broken into and vandalised.

In the video interview carried out on November 11, 2023, the 12 year old witness said that as the two boys left the building and came around a corner, they saw “a tall, kind of strong looking” man holding a stick and they both ran.

He said that his friend - also 12 years old at the time - slipped “and he just started attacking him with the bat”.

The boy said: “I thought he was getting back up but then I just heard the screams out of him, getting attacked by the man and a bat hitting off of him and then I ran around the corner into this industrial estate and I hid”.

Asked how he felt by the specialist Garda interviewer, the boy said ‘terrified” and added “but I just got out of there as fast as I could, all I could think was ‘get out of there’ and I did”.

The boy described the man as “fit looking like, gingerly brown kinda hair”.

He said: “I seen him playing hurling with I was younger and he played for the Bridge and Clare.”

The boy told Gardai Mr Gilligan is an auctioneer in Sixmilebridge.

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Asked about his friend’s screaming, the boy said: “I heard him shouting, like I heard him screaming like telling him to stop. My friend telling him to fuck off and to leave him alone, that was about it”.

The boy hid in a nearby industrial estate and he said that felt relatively safe “but I was still very scared that somehow he could have seen me”.

A short time later, the boy said that he saw his friend come around the corner “and he was limping like he was holding his arm, holding his hand, holding the wrist he broke and it was all swelling up”.

The boy said that his friend was “looking in pain, he had lots of mud all over him”.

The boy told Gardai that his friend “was very shaky, obviously he felt very, very scared and in a lot of pain”.

He said: “I  was just supporting him to walk up, just like holding him up…I put my arm around his back so I could support him so he could have one of his legs off the ground so it would be easier for him to walk." The boy said that his friend "said ‘it just hurts everywhere' is all he said”.

The boy said that his friend told him “go home because if he sees you, he is going to get you as well”.

The cross examination of the boy on his direct video evidence is taking place this afternoon before a jury of seven men and five women continues.