Man's jaw broken in Halloween assault while walking his girlfriend home
A Halloween assault where the victim was walking his girlfriend home ended with him having his jaw broken.
The culprit has paid €10,000 and been given a two-year suspended jail term.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabáin imposed that sentence on Gary Dennehy, 27, of 53 Woodlawn Road, Togher, Cork, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
“This was an unprovoked, vicious assault on an innocent man walking home with his girlfriend. All of the aggression came from the accused man, Mr Dennehy.
“As well as leaving him helpless and walking away in a disregarding manner he left him injured. There was a displacement of a tooth in the back which caused him a lot of trouble and plates had to be fixed in his lower jaw. He had a lot of readjusting.
As everyone knows, a closed head injury is remarkably dangerous. Fortunately, he did not suffer the full extent of what might have happened but these are very troublesome injuries.
Against that background of injuries caused to the victim, the judge said that the defendant had attended well to his addiction difficulties, maintained sobriety, remained of good behaviour and gathered €10,000 compensation.
“The most important thing is that he has stayed out of trouble. I will impose a sentence of two years suspended,” the judge said.
Detective Garda Stephen Fuller confirmed that after the gathering of various sums, a total of €10,000 was available as compensation as of today.
Dennehy previously pleaded guilty to the charge of assault causing harm to the man at Bandon Road on November 1 2017.
The injured party was walking home from a party with friends when he rushed to his girlfriend’s assistance as he saw another man – not before the court - hoist her up on his shoulder. But when he tried to intervene, Gary Dennehy assaulted him from behind.
The injured party had to have two metal plates inserted in his jaw as a result of the severity of the injury, Detective Garda Gordon Crowley said at an earlier hearing.
The injured party hoped he would be able to move on and forget about it but he was left with ongoing symptoms following a night where he wasn’t trying to provoke anything and was just protecting his girlfriend on the way home.
