A man, who has been holding up a 245-house development in Tralee, has been restrained by the High Court from trespassing on the site and from threatening and intimidating site workers.
David Sutton, SC for Kenmare developers Clever Oak Limited, told Mr Justice Michael Quinn that a neighbouring man with no rights whatsoever to adjoining property or with any previous connection to the site had been violently threatening, with a glass bottle and a stick, site clearing workmen.
Mr Sutton, who appeared with John Cashell of J Cashell Solicitors, told the court that Joseph Djemal Kewfi had actually asked one of the workmen: “Do you want to die in this field.”
Counsel said Kewfi’s mother owned a house next to the site at Clash Road, Muing East, Tralee, adding that there had been no interference by her by either letter or physically regarding the development; while Mr Kewfi lived with her he did not own the house and had no property rights in the area.
He told Judge Quinn the developer, who was seeking restraining injunctions against Mr Kewfi, had planning permission for the building of 245 badly needed residential units in Tralee and had employed a site clearance company to prepare the site.
Mr Kewfi, he said, had been one of a number of objectors to the development and since work had started was continually trespassing on the site and holding up work by threatening and intimidating workmen. In one incident he had stood in the path of a digger and had refused to move.
He had been asked by workmen to leave the site on many occasions but had refused to leave. He was a very angry man and at times carried a glass bottle in his hand and on other occasions threatened workmen with a stick, pointing it close to one workman’s face.
Judge Quinn said the court considered it appropriate on the evidence to grant Clever Oak Limited injunctions restraining Mr Kewfi from trespassing on the site and from interfering with the company’s work on the site.
