A SISTER and brother have been jailed for engaging in a street fight linked to a feud on the south side of Limerick city in which Gardaí have investigated 74 separate violent incidents.
Demi Higgins, (26), and her sibling, Lee Higgins, (20), both of Crecora Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, each pleaded guilty in court to engaging in violent disorder.
Demi Higgins also pleaded guilty to producing a hammer during the violence, which broke out on Hyde Road, Limerick, on the afternoon of January 30th, last year.
Judge Colin Daly told the siblings sentencing hearing, held at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, how gardai had been investigating an unrelated matter at the Hyde Road when they observed a street fight erupt, involving at least eight persons, including the two defendants.
“This must be seen as part of the ongoing feud in which gardai have investigated 74 violent incidents. The two accused were not involved in those previous incidents, but they were involved in this,” said Judge Daly.
The judge said Demi Higgins had complained of having been “harassed” by others and Lee Higgins became aware of this and got involved in a verbal argument with members of a family known to gardai.
As Mr Higgins came upon the scene his van was struck with a object by one of the other family and he threw the object back before running towards the other parties.
Mr Higgins started fighting with another man and he then found himself surrounded by other parties who allegedly beat him.
Judge Daly said Demi Higgins and another woman “brought weapons” to the fight. Prosecuting barrister John O’Sullivan said CCTV footage, which was played in court, showed Demi Higgins going to her car to retrieve an “industrial type hammer” and using it in the fight.
Judge Daly said Ms Higgins was “clearly seen striking a number of blows” to others as “children walked home from school”.
Judge Daly said Ms Higgins told gardai she got involved in the fighting, in order to “back up” her brother “who was being attacked”.
The judge said the two defendants did not have any previous convictions, nor had they come to garda attention since. He said they both acted in “brazen” violence “in front of gardai”.
The judge noted that “Demi Higgins got a hammer which she conveniently had in her car boot.”
Gardai at the scene requested support from other garda personnel and 11 garda patrol vehicles, including armed units, were required to calm the situation.
During cross examination by the defendants barristers, Liam Carroll BL and Amy Nix BL, instructed by solicitor Sarah Ryan, Gardai accepted that neither defendant had ever been previously involved in feuding, and that the two siblings had been “strangers to criminality” up to that point.
Gardai agreed with Mr Carroll that neither defendant had ever been investigated for firearms” and “explosive offences which the court heard had occurred in the area previously.
Judge Daly said persons who come before the courts “must understand that serious penalties will flow from engaging in violent behaviour”.
The judge said he considered a jail sentence of three and a half years was appropriate for Demi Higgins, in respect of the violent disorder. The judge reduced the sentence to 18 months, after he took into account Ms Higgins’s guilty plea, her cooperation with gardai, her remorse, that she is a lone parent and a carer for her grandmother. The hammer charge was taken into consideration.
Judge Daly said he considered a headline sentence of four years was appropriate for Lee Higgins, which he reduced to two years on mitigation.
Members of the Higgins family wept in court as the two siblings were led away to begin their sentences at Limerick Prison.