Kildare man sent for trial for tipping over ESB machinery
Photo for illustrative purposes only
A SEPTUAGENARIAN in a wheelchair has been sent for trial for allegedly damaging ESB machinery on his land with his JCB.
Thomas O’Shea (73), with an address of ‘Stellrose’, Wheelam, Milltown, Newbridge is charged with the criminal damage of an ESB hedge-cutting machine that was tidying overgrowth around their high voltage 110Kv power lines.
It is alleged Mr O’Shea used his own digger to overturn the hedge-cutter on his lands in Clonowna, Milltown on 6 May, 2025 – whilst the ESB operator was still within it.
He allegedly threatened to pull down the lines if they didn’t leave, then alighted from his machine, locked it and returned to his own yard.
“There must’ve been an issue between him and the ESB,” mused Judge Desmond Zaidan in Naas District Court on May.
“They were on his land,” said Sergeant Dave Hanrahan.
After the formal handing over of the book of evidence, the judge granted Mr O’Shea legal aid for his solicitor Brian Larkin and one junior counsel, and sent him forward for trial to the present sittings of the Naas Circuit Court, which began on 14 April.
