A Listowel man told gardaí that he bit his girlfriend’s stepfather in self-defence, Tralee Circuit Court has heard.
39-year-old Ryan Allman of Greenville, Listowel, is standing trial facing one charge of assault causing harm, and one of engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour.
It’s alleged he assaulted his then-girlfriend’s stepfather Adao da Silva causing him harm, and that he threatened her mother Deirdre da Silva outside her home.
Mr Allman denies both charges, and claims any injury he caused to Mr Da Silva was out of self-defence.
The court heard Mr Allman was in the apartment of his then-girlfriend Lucy Shine, where he sometimes stayed with her and her three-year-old daughter, at 23 Bridge Road in Listowel.
Rodrigo da Silva was Ms Shine’s neighbour at the time, and is also a friend of her stepfather Adao da Silva, to whom he is not related.
The court was told that Adao da Silva received a call from Rodrigo in September 2021, who told him he heard something going on in Ms Shine’s apartment, and asked him to come down and check it out.
Adao and Rodrigo da Silva entered Ms Shine’s apartment building, claiming the main door from the street was open, and Rodrigo da Silva told the court that Mr Allman opened the apartment door as they came up the stairs.
It is the prosecution’s case that Mr Allman set upon Adao da Silva as he entered the apartment, and in the course of a struggle bit his ear and two of his fingers, also inflicting other injuries.
Mr da Silva received stitches to his ear in University Hospital Kerry, and also received a tetanus injection, and a GP noted other injuries to his face.
The defence claims Rodrigo and Adao da Silva burst into the apartment and attacked Mr Allman, who told gardaí he was in fear for his life having been attacked in his home by two men larger than him.
The prosecution alleges that the next day, Mr Allman made threats to kill Ms Shine’s mother and her entire family, while making a gesture of a gun, and approached Adao da Silva with a baseball bat, outside the da Silvas’ home on Feale Drive.
Mr Allman admits he insulted Ms Shine’s mother, Deirdre da Silva, using explicit language, but denies making any threats or having a baseball bat at the time.
The trial continues today before Judge Sinead Behan.
