Suspended term for lying over attack on Irishman

A WOMAN who lied to Australian police about her boyfriend’s involvement in a vicious assault that left a young Irishman in a coma received a suspended sentence yesterday.

Chantel Taia, 19, of Matraville, Sydney, was ordered to serve a nine-month suspended jail sentence and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond after pleading guilty with concealing an offence and hindering police investigating the assault on David Keohane, from Cork, in Coogee, Sydney, on August 9.

She was scared she would lose her boyfriend of six years if she told police of his involvement in the assault, a court heard yesterday.