A student claimed in court he was pulled from his bed and put out of a house in his underwear by a landlord and his son in a dispute after the men burst into his room in the house where he said he and four others were staying on the understanding they would pay rent once they were given a price for the letting.
George Pendle told Cork District Court that he had moved into the house at Rosetta, Nursery View, Glasheen Road, in Cork as he understood that a friend of his, Sarah Corby had arranged the summer letting of the property after the college year finished at the end of May.
Mr Pendle told how he was lying in bed in an upstairs bedroom in the house around 8.30am on August 11th, 2022, when two men whom he did know burst into his room and tried to grab his phone and ended up pulling him from the bed in his “jocks” and manhandling him down the stairs.
“Two men I had never seen before burst into my room. The first thing they said was ‘Give us your phone’ – they were trying to take my phone from me – they were kind of roughing me up. One of them gave me a slap in the face – I ended up with a mark on my eyeball.
“They pulled the duvet off me and grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me out the door of the bedroom – I was wearing only my underwear – my jocks – I was manhandled out the door,” said Mr Pendle, who described the experience as “horrendous” and “awful”.
Mr Pendle was giving evidence in the case of the owner of the property, Daniel Lynch (62), and his son, Donal Lynch (32) of Moanmore, Castleisland, Co Kerry, who are both charged with assaulting Mr Pendle at Rosetta, Nursery View, Glasheen Road, Cork, on August 11th, 2022.
Both men deny the charge and related charges that they entered the property as trespassers with intent to commit theft and attempting to steal a phone from Mr Pendle while Mr Lynch snr also denies a charge of assaulting another occupant of the house, student Olivia Lehane.
Cross-examined by defence solicitor Joe Cuddigan, Mr Pendle denied he was aggressive to the two men when they entered his room and that he kicked Mr Lynch snr in the stomach, causing Mr Lynch jnr to fear for his father’s safety and that he threatened to burn down the house.
Mr Pendle also denied a suggestion by Mr Cuddigan that “he was happy to go under the radar and live in the house for free without paying any rent – happy days”. He said he was willing to pay rent, but he never did because Mr Gosling never came back to them with a price for the summer letting.
Earlier, fellow occupant Ms Corby said how when her letting arrangement for the college year ended at the end of May 2022, she contacted the letting agent – Mark Gosling of Behan, Irwin and Gosling – to know if she could have a summer letting on the house at a reduced rate.
She said Mr Gosling said he would check with the owner, Mr Lynch snr, who said he would consider it and would get back with details on dates and rates but she didn’t hear back from Mr Gosling regarding rates, so she continued to stay in the house and brought in four other tenants with her.
“I agreed with Mark we could stay there – we were never contacted about rent or told we had to pay this money by a certain time,” said Ms Corby, adding she was never told she had to leave the house and was never given back her €500 deposit from her letting arrangement for the college year.
Ms Corby told how she was in her bedroom in the attic when she heard a commotion downstairs on the morning of August 11th and she recognised Mr Pendle’s voice as he shouted at someone “Get the f**k off me,” so she got up and got dressed.
“The younger man came into my room. I was in the corner of the room. I could hear the footsteps. He came in and said you need to get out of here. He said we were trespassing, that we were there illegally. I grabbed my phone and followed him out of the room.
“Then when I got on to the stairs, I saw the older man whom I recognised as Dan Lynch – I shouted at him that it was a miscommunication between the letting agent and himself, that he knew we were there and we weren’t trespassing – it was scary and I was terrified.”
Ms Corby said that after they were escorted from the house by the Lynches, they discovered that they had changed the locks and could not get back into the property so after the Lynches left, they rang Mr Gosling to see could help them get their belongings.
He arrived at the house and he rang the Lynches and asked the five occupants to sign a document he drew up saying they would each pay €800 that they owed in rent. They signed the document and Mr Gosling opened the house, so they were able to get their belongings, the court heard.
Cross-examined by Mr Cuddigan for the Lynches, Ms Corby agreed there was no formal written agreement regarding the summer letting and she had told the other occupants that she had rung Mark Gosling and he had said that it was okay for them to move into the house.
She said that she did not collect the money from the other occupants as previously each tenant had paid their rent individually, but she accepted that she had given the other occupants a key to the house and that she had not given their names to either the owner Mr Lynch snr or Mr Gosling.
She denied she was trying to get the house for the summer for free and said Mr Gosling had a copy of her passport, her PPS number as well as her home address though she admitted she failed to respond to Mr Gosling when he texted her to get details from her about the other occupants.
“Mark Gosling just wanted to get the rooms filled – I didn’t think they cared who was there once there was someone there for the summer and nobody asked for the money,” said Ms Corby who said she never asked for her deposit back when it was put to her she was trying to get the house for free.
Mr Gosling confirmed that he was contacted by Ms Corby at the end of May when she inquired about a summer letting so he contacted Mr Lynch snr who said he would consider it but that he would need the property back by mid-August as he wanted to do renovation work before the new college year.
He said he informed Ms Corby of that but he never heard back from Mr Lynch snr and he never heard back from Ms Corby but he became aware around August 8th or 9th that the property was occupied so he called there on the morning of the 9th and left a letter for the occupants to contact him.
He called back later that day and met Mr Pendle and he asked him who had given him a key and he said that Ms Corby had, the court heard. Mr Gosling said when he asked Mr Pendle why he had not responded to the letter that he left for the tenants asking them to contact him, Mr Pendle told him he was too busy.
He had checked all the rooms when he called early on August 9th and saw they were all occupied but when he checked later that day, he discovered one room had been emptied of all belongings and he found suitcases packed in another room.
Cross-examined by Mr Cuddigan, Mr Gosling agreed there was no letting agreement in place that would have made the occupancy a valid letting and when Mr Cuddigan said that in common parlance, these people squatting in the house, he agreed.
The case will resume at a future date.
