A man will stand trial for allegedly strangling a woman while covering her mouth and nose with a curtain in her County Donegal home.
The man, who is in his 30s, cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the alleged victim in the case.
A book of evidence was served on the man, who was brought before Letterkenny District Court.
The man is in custody and was brought to court by prison officers.
Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has consented to the accused man being sent forward to the next sitting of Letterkenny Circuit Court.
Judge Éiteáin Cunningham made an order returning the man for trial and administered the alibi warning. A section 56 order relating to videos of interviews was also made.
Legal aid was granted to the man’s solicitor, Mr Patsy Gallagher, and two legal counsel were assigned in the case.
The alleged offences were committed shortly after the man was released on bail from court.
The man has been charged with a sexual assault and with an assault causing harm. He has also been charged with the false imprisonment of a woman and with the non-fatal strangulation of the same woman.
He is also charged with an assault and another charge of assault causing harm.
The court heard that, on a date in October, Gardai responded to a report of a dispute at a property in Donegal and found the injured party with a mark on her face.
The accused man was highly intoxicated and not forthcoming with any details.
After he was brought to Sligo District Court, the man was released on bail and returned to the same area later that day.
It was alleged that an argument ensued, during which the man put his hand down the woman’s top and touched her breast.
It was claimed that the man threw her onto a bed and, having fallen onto the floor, the woman grabbed the curtain on the way down.
The court was told that the man put his hands around the woman’s neck and covered her mouth and nose with the curtain before punching her repeatedly in the face. After the woman got up, he was alleged to have punched her repeatedly on the stomach.
Photos of the injuries sustained by the woman were previously handed into the court.
The man has been in custody since late October and, while granted bail by the High Court following a decision in the District Court to refuse bail, he has been unable to comply with conditions laid down.
“We can’t take up the High Court bail until we get an address and we can’t get an address until we get out,” Mr Patsy Gallagher, solicitor for the accused, told an earlier court hearing. “It’s a chicken and egg situation.”
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