Brendan McManamon has been found not guilty of assault for an incident during a club match in March 2012.
His accuser was former Longford corner back and Na Fianna footballer Enda Ledwith. The pair became involved in a brawl near the end of the match between St. Jude's and Na Fianna. Ledwith argued the incident started when McManamon punched him in the chest and he responded by pushing him in the chest and telling him to "Fuck off."
Ledwith claimed that McManamon snapped and started throwing a flurry of punches at him, a couple of which connected. Ledwith's jaw was fractured in two places and he had to get a metal plate inserted. He insisted he did not file a complaint to the Guards until he was told McMenamin had himself made allegations of assault.
McManamon contended he was reacting to getting hit in the groin but Ledwith denied this. The jury took two hours to acquit the Dublin footballer
Ledwith has been referred to as an off-duty guard in many of the articles on the incident, however not many have pointed out that he was on-duty Na Fianna player at the time of the incident. Brendan has played inter-county football for Dublin, winning the O'Byrne Cup in 2008 and togging out in a few league matches in the meantime. His brother Kevin has a rather higher profile currently, scored the winning goal in the 2011 All-Ireland final and the critical goal in last year's All-Ireland semi-final.
