Beating left student blind in one eye

A DUBLIN man has been jailed for his role in an assault on an African PhD student which has left him permanently disfigured and blind in one eye.

Luke Casey, aged 25, beat Mapfumo Cuidzambwa, aged 30, with a hurley about his body while his co-accused, Stephen Mooney, aged 24, struck his head with a golf club, breaking the unarmed victim’s facial bones and sinking his right eye into its socket. Witnesses later told gardaí Mooney could be heard shouting “do you want to see me crack a nigger’s skull?”.

Mooney, of Greenfort Lawns, Clondalkin, was jailed for four years last July. He is also serving a four-and-a-half year term for attempting to rape a girl while on bail for the assault.

Casey, of Greenfort Gardens, Clondalkin, was jailed for three years and nine months.

The prosecution case was that Mooney had inflicted the serious injuries and had instigated the attack.

Both men pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Mr Cuidzambwa causing him harm and criminal damage of two cars at Greenfort Lawns on October 1, 2006.

Mr Cuidzambwa’s victim impact report stated he had to live with the horror of the assault on a daily basis.

He also said he has become a loner and must live with the attack for the rest of his life.