A father and son charged with throwing a student staying in their property out on to the street in his underpants had the case against them dismissed.
Judge Marian O'Leary told Cork District Court that 62-year-old Daniel and Donal Lynch, 32, were entitled to use "proportionate force" against trespassers who had not paid any rent.
The defendants, of Moanmore, Castleisland, Co Kerry, were previously charged in relation to alleged offences which occurred at Nursery View, Glasheen Road in Cork city on 11 August 2022.
Both men faced identical charges of assaulting a male and female student, attempting to commit theft of a phone and trespassing to commit theft at Nursery View. The landlords had denied the charges.
At a previous hearing of Cork District Court defence solicitor Joe Cuddigan claimed that the students staying in the house were "milking the situation and freeloading".
However, the students had insisted they were willing to pay and that there had been a misunderstanding about this.
One of them, George Pendle, told the court that the men pulled him out of bed by his ankles while wearing nothing but his "jocks".
However, it was alleged by the defence that Mr Pendle kicked Daniel Lynch in the chest which led the father and son to physically eject him from the house.
Today at Cork District Court all charges were dismissed against both men by Judge O’Leary.
Defence solicitor Joe Cuddigan said there been widespread publicity about the case since the allegations were first made against his clients, adding that they had suffered reputational damage.
"They were subjected to quite an amount of insidious comment when the matter came before the court initially, particularly in the media in Kerry.
"And 'landlord’ in Kerry still has certain connotations in the post-1847 era and my clients suffered because of that," Mr Cuddigan said.
He thanked Judge O'Leary for the length of time the court had given the case.
The judge said that she wanted to make it quite clear that it was a "criminal prosecution" and not a "landlord and tenant" issue.
She said that a person is allowed to use "proportionate force" to remove trespassers from their property.
She said that regarding the five people living at the house at the relevant time - of June, July and part of August 2022 - only one of them had a lease and that expired in May of last year.
"She (the student) did not pay any rent during the June to August period.
"Of the four people who were residing in the property (with the student who had the earlier lease ending in May) they entered the property without consent and did not pay any rent.
"They were trespassers on the property on the property and the owners were entitled to enter the property and ask the trespasser to vacate immediately."
Judge O’Leary said that having regard to evidence before the court there was no implied lease or letting agreement in place.
She said the State its prosecution of the landlord and his son had not reached the threshold to prove they were trespassers.
The judge said that having heard the evidence from the students and the memo of the garda interview with the father and son she had a "reasonable doubt" that assaults had taken place.
She dismissed the remaining assault charges.
