CONSTITUENT:THE MAN at the centre of the controversy which precipitated Trevor Sargent's resignation yesterday praised the former minister of state for making representations to gardaí on his behalf.
Speaking outside his Balbriggan home yesterday evening, Dominic McGowan said he was “shocked and saddened” by the resignation.
Mr McGowan insisted Mr Sargent had merely defended his legal rights.
Mr McGowan was assaulted by a neighbour following an incident near his home at Cardy Rock Close, in December 2007.
He himself was convicted of threatening and abusive behaviour and fined €500.
He said yesterday he had asked Mr Sargent for help regarding the case at a constituency clinic in June 2008.
“It wasn’t that he was supporting me. He just wrote a letter on my behalf.
“. . . I have no connections with the Green Party whatsoever, but I contacted numerous politicians about the situation that took place. It was just that Mr Sargent was the only one that got back to me.”
Mr McGowan claimed that in December 2007 he approached two youths who appeared to be vandalising a street sign in his estate one evening on his way home from work.
“When I asked them what they were doing, they said nothing, and so I said your parents would not like to know you were off doing nothing .”
Mr McGowan claimed the youths responded that their parents “wouldn’t f***ing care”.
He said he then decided to call their bluff and go and speak to their parents, an action he now greatly regrets, “especially in light of what has subsequently happened“.
When he confronted the mother of one of the youths, Mr McGowan said she started “effing and blinding at me straight away”.
He claimed the father then appeared and assaulted him.
Mr McGowan said he was forced to spend a night in hospital as a result of the incident.
Mr McGowan said yesterday this was just “a simple case that has got blown out of proportion”.
