Massive bleed on the brain followed unprovoked headbutt

A man whose unprovoked headbutt on a man on his way home from a night out in Cork City had devastating consequences for the victim and yesterday the judge remanded the accused in custody overnight to consider what sentence to impose.

Kris Collins, of Millhouse, Murphy’s Rock, Old Mallow Rd, Cork, pleaded guilty to the charge of assault causing serious harm to Sherzad Ismail in Cork on September 7, 2014.

Det Garda Neil Walsh described what happened at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.

After 2am, Mr Sherzad and his friend were coming home from a night out socialising on Oliver Plunkett St and as they passed the Grafton Bar they approached a young woman standing outside and spoke briefly to her.

After no more than five seconds Mr Sherzad’s friend saw two or three males approaching from his left and the injured party was headbutted without warning.

“It knocked him out cold. His friend described seeing him falling to the ground his eyes going white and lying there lifelessly,”said Det Garda Walsh.

A security man at The Grafton who was trained in first aid put the injured party in the recovery position and he came around and was later tended inside the premises. An ambulance was called but the injured party and his friend walked away and said they would make their own way home.

The next day, the injured party’s family found him lying unconscious on the floor at home. He was rushed to Cork University Hospital where doctors found a massive clot bleeding on to his brain and they had to put him in to an induced coma to deal with it.

Christine Mullins, the injured party’s wife, said those days were extremely scary for the family. She said the head injury had a terrible effect on her husband and the family.

The reason he was out that night was a celebration with a friend of the fact that he had been given a job in a Turkish barbers and was about to start that Monday. He also had Irish citizenship, something he was very proud of and he was always very fond of Irish people.

Ms Mullins said her husband’s life changed that Saturday night/Sunday morning after the assault and that his happy disposition had changed. She said a happy, hardworking family who looked after each other had been badly hurt.

“I have a lot of hurt and anger towards the accused. It has been a living nightmare for us. He would love to return to work as a professional Turkish barber,” said Ms Mullins.

She said it was hard for someone to appreciate the amount of physical, emotional, and financial damage caused to the family by the injury to her husband.

She expressed the hope that this kind of unprovoked attack in the city would stop.

Det Garda Walsh said the gardaí viewed it absolutely as an unprovoked attack though he said the defendant tried to make out that he was defending his girlfriend who was uncomfortable with the two men talking to her.

Collins said yesterday: “I want to apologise to the family. I am sorry for what I did. I didn’t mean to cause him that much harm.”

Judge Donagh McDonagh said it was too serious a case to finalise sentencing yesterday and adjourned it to today with the accused remanded in custody. He had a previous assault causing harm conviction for another headbutt assault in 2009.