Siblings jailed for six years for Wicklow assault
A Wicklow brother and sister who assaulted a man outside his home leaving him with extensive head and facial injuries have been jailed for six years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Emma O'Brien (aged 29) of Old Connaught View, Bray, Co. Wicklow and Wesley O'Brien (aged 22) Ashlawn Court, also in Bray had pleaded not guilty to assault causing serious harm to Michael Connors (aged 47), possession of a hatchet with intent to cause serious injury and violent disorder at Old Connaught View on March 14, 2009.
The brother and sister were re-arraigned in front of the jury on day three of the trial last December and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of intentionally causing harm to Mr Connors and to committing violent disorder.
The pleas were accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the charge of possession of a hatchet was dropped.
The court heard during the trial that Mr Connors had been left with potentially life-threatening injuries immediately after the assault.
He was brought to the emergency room by paramedics with a significantly swollen face, cuts to his head, a broken left wrist and bruising to his left side.
A scan of Mr Connors' head showed two depressed skull fractures and blood on the brain.
He needed 18 stitches to the left side of his head and a further 17 stitches to the right side. He had extensive fractures to his cheekbones which were detached from the bottom of his brain.
Judge Patricia Ryan said it had been a premeditated, violent and sustained assault.
She accepted the expressions of remorse from both the O’Brien’s and the “efforts they had made to rehabilitate” before she sentenced them to a concurrent term of three and half years for the assault and six years for the violent disorder.
Wesley, who has nine previous convictions, and Emma, who has three previous convictions, expressed their remorse and regret about the events on the night.
In a victim impact report read to the court by Detective Garda Eamon O’Neill, Mr Connors, a former tree surgeon, said his “whole life has changed” since the assault and he cannot work any more due to on-going injuries and loss of balance as a result of the attack.
He suffers memory loss and attends a psychologist once a week.
During the trial, Mr Connors, told prosecution counsel, Shane Costelloe BL that he was at the back of his house chopping sticks with a small multi-purpose hatchet when he heard glass breaking and went to investigate.
Mr Connors said he was confronted by Emma O’Brien and he asked her what she had done to his window, which was broken, to which she replied “Get him, get him, get him.”
Mr Connors said he was set upon by a group of people, including Wesley O'Brien, who he said “beat me and beat me and beat me until there was no life left in me.”
Mr Connors said he could identify both Wesley and Emma O'Brien as being among his attackers as they were his neighbours and he had known them all their lives.
