Soccer star hopeful jailed for assault
A talented soccer player who was rejected by a major English club because of his role in a serious assault on a DART passenger has been jailed for six months at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Taran Randhaine (aged 20), of Dorney Court, Shankhill had been drinking at a Christening before he took part in an unprovoked attack on Mr Michael Quill (aged 27), along with three other intoxicated accomplices.
Randhaine and his three co-accused, Patrick Wall (aged 19), and Kevin Corcoran (aged 19), both of Clifton Park, Shankhill and Craig Courtney (aged 19, of Cromlech Fields, Ballybrack, who were all 16 years old at the time, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Mr Quill on September 8, 2003.
Judge Katherine Delahunt imposed two years imprisonment on Randhaine but suspended the last 18 months on condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for two years. She also ordered that he pay €500 in compensation to Mr Quill.
Judge Delahunt also imposed two years imprisonment with 18 months suspended on Wall, Corcoran and Courtney in January. She ordered Wall and Corcoran to pay €3,000 and Courtney to pay €2,000 in compensation to their victim.
Mr Patrick Reynolds BL, defending, told Judge Delahunt in January that Randhaine was a gifted footballer who had a trial for Newcastle United but the club "put an end to it" because of his criminal conviction.
Garda Carmel Cooney told Ms Anne-Marie Lawlor, BL, prosecuting, that the four got on the DART and asked Mr Quill if he knew the "Walls from Ballybrack".
Mr Quill didn’t know any such people or any of the four but told them he did to which Wall replied "what are you saying about my family" and the gang started to attack him.
They smashed a pint glass over his head and kicked and punched him. Randhaine had tried to kick Mr Quill but was so drunk he tripped.
Mr Quill wasn’t left with any permanent injuries but his eyes were so swollen that he couldn’t open them for two days and he was left with a large gash to the top of his head.
The four then got off the DART at Shankill and Mr Quill remained on it until it reached Bray where he sought assistance.
Mr Reynolds had submitted at an earlier court appearance in January that Randhaine was the sole carer for his ill mother and that he had been seeking assistance for his drug and alcohol addictions but was unable to produce medical reports to this effect ordered by Judge Delahunt.
Ms Sandra Frayne BL, defending Courtney, told Judge Delahunt in Januray that her client had apprehended a man who tried to falsely imprison a woman after seriously assaulting her.
She said Courtney chased the man and held him down until gardai arrived and Ms Frayne recalled that Garda Ciaran Murphy had given evidence on a previous occasion, that the culprit would not have been caught without Courtney’s intervention because he was not from the locality and not known to gardaí.
Courtney received a one year suspended sentence from Judge Delahunt last May after she heard that he stole an AIB company car and later smashed it into a tree.
Courtney had an additional three previous convictions, Wall had 18, Corcoran had two and Randhaine had six.
