{"id":519052,"date":"2026-06-04T23:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/519052\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T23:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:08:09","slug":"sentencing-of-charlie-chawkes-son-and-daughter-for-assault-set-for-mid-july-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/519052\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentencing of Charlie Chawke\u2019s son and daughter for assault set for mid-July \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A son and daughter of prominent publican Charlie Chawke<\/a> are to be sentenced on July 14th after they pleaded guilty to assaulting two men at a prestigious hotel in Adare<\/a>, Co Limerick, three years ago.<\/p>\n

Bill and Alison Chawke attacked the two innocent victims without provocation, at the Dunraven Arms Hotel, a four-star establishment that has hosted British royalty and Hollywood stars, on November 9th, 2023.<\/p>\n

Sentencing is due to be finalised on July 14th, Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Previously, the court heard that both defendants played important roles within the family\u2019s pub business and that their convictions had brought embarrassment on the Chawke family and its family-run business \u2013 a well-known chain of pubs.<\/p>\n

The court heard that mother-of-three Alison Chawke (41) bit one of the men, John McHugh, who is in his 50s, on the left side of his face and kicked his head a number of times as her brother Bill Chawke (31) wrestled with him on the floor of the hotel.<\/p>\n

Alison Chawke, The Beeches, Holywell, Goatstown, Dublin 14, pleaded guilty on a full facts basis to assaulting McHugh, causing him harm.<\/p>\n

Bill Chawke of Merrion Street Upper, Dublin 2, admitted on a full facts basis to assaulting McHugh\u2019s friend Gerard Cox, causing him harm, at the hotel on the same date.<\/p>\n

Following their arrest, the two defendants told garda\u00ed they had consumed 14 drinks between them on the night. Prosecuting barrister Lily Buckley told the court that Bill and Alison Chawke had incorrectly perceived, in their intoxication, that Cox and McHugh were staring and smirking at them at the hotel bar.<\/p>\n

The assaults were captured on a mobile phone camera as well as the hotel\u2019s CCTV system and the footage was played in court.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Chawke siblings brought \u2018embarrassment\u2019 on their family after hotel assault, court hearsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The footage showed Alison and Bill Chawke throwing kicks and punches at the two men inside the bar and at the hotel lobby in the early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n

Buckley, instructed by state solicitor for Co Limerick Brendan Gill, said that before the attack, Bill Chawke demanded he be served bar food, despite staff explaining that bar food was no longer available after midnight.<\/p>\n

Buckley said an on-duty night manager at the hotel had told garda\u00ed that Bill Chawke \u201cwas stubborn and arrogant and asked for food again and again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Buckley said Cox politely asked Bill Chawke to stop annoying the bar staff and Bill Chawke approached Cox and got into a verbal altercation with him.<\/p>\n

Buckley said Bill Chawke retreated to his seat at the bar but went back to Cox and \u201clunged\u201d at him, \u201chitting\u201d him.<\/p>\n

A number of other patrons at the bar attempted to restrain Bill Chawke and Alison Chawke, who initially tried to pull her brother away from the scene, began kicking out and swinging her hands at the group trying to intervene.<\/p>\n

The CCTV footage also showed Alison Chawke walking behind the bar, picking up a pint glass, and throwing it in the direction of the two victims.<\/p>\n

Buckley said the footage showed the Chawkes following the men out of the bar and into the lobby area where Alison Chawke \u201clocked on to\u201d the left side of McHugh\u2019s face, biting him on his left cheek.<\/p>\n

Cox told garda\u00ed he felt his eyes being gouged during the attack and he \u201cdid not do anything to draw such a vicious response\u201d.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

Later, Bill Chawke met garda\u00ed by appointment and was questioned about the attack.<\/p>\n

On the night, Alison Chawke was arrested at the scene for refusing to give her name. She told garda\u00ed she did not want to give her name as she did not want her father, Charlie Chawke, to find out what had happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A son and daughter of prominent publican Charlie Chawke are to be sentenced on July 14th after they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[4527,9,10,56263,24443,73168,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-519052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-adare","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-charlie-chawke","tag-circuit-court","tag-criminal-courts","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116694358825627794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}