Martin McCaughey - a Dundalk businessman - was recently acquitted of an alleged assault of a burglar who broke into his home. This wouldn't be much of a news story other than the fact that McCaughey actually ran him over in his Mercedes twice, a couple of hundred metres from the scene of the crime. The second hit from the car left Daniel McCormack (the burglar) with a badly broken leg and pinned up against a railing until the Gardaí arrived on the scene.

McCormack was compensated for his injuries by Mr McCaughey's insurance company and received €175,000. However this case throws up a topic of heated debate in Ireland - when an intruder targets your home and is in your rooms stealing your possessions, how far can you go in order to defend yourself and your hard earned valuables?

It's interesting to note that McCaughey was acquitted with a majority verdict even though his insurance company actually compensated McCormack. In my opinion this goes to show that they placed the blame at their client's feet. McCaughey claimed to have been in the dark as to the payout and only became aware of it recently. I wonder would the insurance company have been as quick to compensate him after last week's acquittal?

In my opinion McCaughey was in the wrong and I was very surprised to see him walk free last week. It is one thing to defend yourself or attack someone in your house, but chasing him down the street and running him over not once but twice is assault. I understand that that McCaughey woke up with his wife next to him with this man standing in their bedroom with a screwdriver. I cannot imagine the sheer terror and anger that he must have felt and he'd have my complete support if he managed to knock him out in his house. However once the danger is gone (along with the valuables) then your right to defending your property is also diminished and using a car to try to hurt someone is surely at the very least excessive force. Taking the overriding feeling of anger and adreniline flowing into consideration, there could potentially be a case for defence for the first time McCormack was knocked down. That should be blown out of the water when the defendant hit him the second time.

The Criminal Law (Defence and the Dwelling) Act 2011 was enacted on the 19th of December, 2011 giving homeowners the right to reasonable force when dealing with an burglar. This was not the case in Dundalk and as intrusive and deplorable the original crime was, it did not merit what happened next. The phrase "two wrongs don't make a right" springs to mind however in this case the courts have found that they actually do.