Prisoner gets extra three years for assaulting officer
A man serving a 13-year sentence for a violent sexual assault has been given another three years consecutively for severely injuring a prison officer who wouldn't let him use the phone.
Stephen Phelan (23) of Poddle Park, Crumlin was on "nearly 23-hour lock down" in Wheatfield Prison and "close to madness" when he head butted and repeatedly punched Mr James Gibney who had let him out of his cell to have a shower.
Phelan pleaded guilty in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the assault of Mr Gibney in the prison on September 19, 2006.
It is the second such incident involving Phelan who also head-butted a prison officer during his trial in 2005 because he wasn't allowed sit by the courtroom door.
Phelan was convicted in that trial of carrying out a string of burglaries during which he broke into a house and forced two men to try to have sex with a female house mate.
He threatened to cut-off the woman's nipples and to cut her vagina, cut her on the back and buttocks, and threatened to cut one of the men's testicles in an ordeal which lasted some 90 minutes during which they feared for their lives.
Phelan and accomplice also burgled eight houses in the Harolds Cross, Blackpitts and Rathmines areas in the one-night rampage during which he cut five of the victims, stole and robbed money, phones, videos, car keys and other property and took two cars which were crashed.
He stabbed one victim nine times, including a perforation of his bowel which left part of his intestine hanging out, and cuts on his shoulder, arm and ribcag. Another victim of that rampage thought he would lose an eye and yet another got 24 stitches.
Detective Garda Maurice Flanagan told prosecuting counsel, Mr Maurice Coffey BL, that before the assault of Mr Gibney, the other prisoners on the wing had been locked down to allow Phelan clean out his cell and have a shower.
After he showered he was been escorted back to his cell by Mr Gibney when he asked him if he could make a phone call. The officer said he would let him make one later to which Phelan replied he was going to "kill an officer one of these days."
As he was about to walk into his cell he spun around and head butted and punched Mr Gibney who fell to the ground. He then repeatedly punched him in the face as he lay on the ground until he was pulled off by three other officers.
Mr Gibney told Mr Coffey that following the assault he was admitted to hospital with two black eyes and a suspected broken nose. He said the incident had made it impossible for him to continue to study for his degree in public administration and made him question his career in the prison service.
Defence counsel, Ms Caroline Biggs, said Phelan had "felt he was losing his mind" and was annoyed that day as he felt his "listener" from the Samaritans had been made leave his cell half an hour early.
She said when his cell door was opened he "went blank" and couldn't remember anything before he was tackled by the prison officers.
She asked Judge Desmond Hogan to consider Phelan's early guilty plea and his remorse for his actions. She said he had been exposed to "horrendous" violence all his life and had once seen his father kick his eight-month pregnant mother in the stomach.
Judge Hogan said he had no choice but to add a custodial sentence onto his current term and gave him three additional years but he suspended the final 18 months on strict conditions.
