A 34-year-old off-duty garda has been convicted of assaulting two women in Nenagh on 6 March last year.

Brian Hanrahan of Dublin Road, Nenagh, had denied assaulting the two women after they gave him a lift in the early hours of that morning.

Evidence has already been heard in the case in which the two women, Emer Kelly and Aisling King, offered to give him a lift home for a fee of €15.

A row developed in the car and they asked him to get out.

When Ms Kelly asked him for the fee, he pulled her hair and punched and kicked her six to eight times.

Ms King, who was the driver of the car, also said she was hit in the face when she went to help her friend.

Hanrahan claimed he was trying to defend himself against assault from the two women and said the last thing he wanted was to be involved in an altercation four months after he was shot during a robbery in the US.

Giving her decision today, Judge Elizabeth McGrath said having heard the evidence, she was satisfied that Hanrahan was guilty of the two charges of assault and that his account of the assault and his own version of events were not accurate.

She also considered she could not accept that the three female witnesses involved had lied in their evidence.

The judge has yet to make a decision on sentencing.