HSE paramedic, Andrew Long yesterday applied to withdraw his guilty plea to assaulting two female first aid students when he placed them in a choke hold five years ago and plead ‘not guilty’ instead.
At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Mr Long (35) was due to be sentenced where he is facing a jail term up to five years after pleading guilty to assault causing harm against Mary Nihill contrary to Section 3 of the Offences Against the Person Act.
On the third day of his trial last March, Mr Long of Carraig Dubh, Tobertaosceain, Ennis dramatically changed his initial ‘not guilty’ plea to ‘guilty’ just before the State and defence were about to make their closing speeches before a jury.
In evidence, during the trial, Ms Nihill recalled how Mr Long knocked her out during an evening Civil Defence first aid class at the Vocational Education Centre in Scarriff in March 2013.
Ms Nihill told the court that after the incident “I was in shock. I thought I was in safe hands with a professional paramedic. He tried to knock me out – he did knock me out.”
She said: “I was choking and slipping on the chair and telling him to stop. I wanted to go out, but I couldn’t escape.”
Mr Long’s second assault victim, Elise McMahon from Broadford also attended the course the same night and was seven months pregnant at the time.
Ms McMahon told the court that Mr Long put his arm wrapped around her neck from behind.
She said: “My airwaves were cut off. I was conscious, but literally I couldn’t talk. I had no voice. It was the weirdest feeling. It scared me. The only way to stop was to push my body forward.”
As part of the prosecution case, the head of the country’s Civil Defence College, Roisín Maguire said that the manoeuvre carried out by Mr Long on the two women at “could have been life-threatening because basically, you would be restricting blood flow to the brain”.
Mr Long was remanded on bail with sentencing adjourned to yesterday.
Counsel for the State, Philip Rahn BL told the court that Mr Long’s application to change his plea comes at a time when “we are absolutely at the last minute before midnight” in the case.
Referring to the application, Judge Gerald Keys said: “It is a bit late.”
Mr Long’s solicitor’s, William Cahir led Mr Long’s three strong legal team in the case and Mr Cahir successfully applied to come off record in the case. A member of the legal team, Bernard Madden SC told the court yesterday that Mr Long wishes to discharge his legal team.
Addressing the court, Mr Long said: “I am requesting an adjournment in the case so that I can get a new legal team. My intention is to vacate my guilty plea.”
Mr Long told Judge Keys he decided to change his plea of guilt last March.
Mr Lon said that his first phone call to a different solicitor was the Monday morning after the case had concluded the previous Friday.
However, Mr Long said that he has had difficulty securing a different solicitor.
He said: “Each solicitor firm that I spoke to didn’t come back. I felt I was snookered and a little like a tennis ball.”
Mr Long said that he eventually did secure legal representation for sentencing last Tuesday but his barrister told him before court that it would be better if a solicitor from outside the region would represent him given the nature of the application.
Mr Rahn said that it is very, very late application being made by Mr Long and that one of his victims, Mary Nihill is in court to make her victim impact statement.
Mr Rahn said that the onus is on the accused to establish a good and sufficient reason to change his plea. Mr Rahn said that such applications are ‘rare”.
Mr Rahn said: “Sometimes individuals make allegations against lawyers who come off record and it is important that lawyers be given an opportunity to respond.”
Judge Keys said: “To say you can’t engage a solicitor and fully brief one, I find somewhat surprising.”
Judge Keys said that he would give Mr Long until next Tuesday to have a sworn affidavit complete with the reasons why he is seeking to change his plea.
Judge Keys directed that a copy of the affidavit be made available to Mr Cahir and the State.
Judge Keys said that the application will be heard on July 24th and he remanded Mr Long on continuing bail to that date.
