Sexual assault hearing against former Celtic star Paddy McCourt will now not go ahead next month

The case involving former Derry City and Celtic footballer Patrick McCourt will not now go ahead next month.

McCourt (38), from Wheatfield Court in Muff, is charged with one count of sexual assault that was said to have occurred on January 30 this year.

Last week a date was set for the contest to be heard on December 22.

However, at today's hearing a defence barrister said that a mobile phone that he said was 'essential' to the case had yet to be examined.

Eoghan Devlin representing McCourt said that the defence had become aware on November 2 that this phone, which belongs to the alleged injured party in the case, had been seized. 

A prosecution barrister said that there was some dispute as to the parameters of the phone's examination and if that could not be agreed then the contest date was unlikely to be met.

Mr Devlin said that they had been asking for this phone from the beginning of the case. 

He said the contest date was unlikely to be met firstly due to the delay in forensic examination of the phone and secondly because the defence were entitled to carry out their own expert evaluation of the device.

District Judge Barney McElholm said he could understand that the alleged victim would not want the entire contents of her phone to be examined and would only want 'relevant' material to be accessed.

Mr Devlin said in his experience the phone experts examined the entirety of the phone and then issued a report on what they deemed to be relevant.

The prosecution asked for an adjournment for a number of weeks to see if the parties could agree on how to proceed.

Judge McElholm said that the parties should try and find an agreement but that it was unlikely that the case could proceed on December 22.

He took the contest out of that date and adjourned the case until November 24 for mention.