Man smashed windows of car containing 4 children

A man who took part in a violent attack on a car containing four children including a toddler has received a six-year jail term with the last 18 months suspended.

Michael McDonagh, aged 34, was one of three men who used baseball bats to smash all the windows in the car before turning on the children’s mother.

McDonagh, of St Joseph’s Park, Dunsink Lane, Finglas, pleaded guilty to violent disorder at Tesco Clearwater, Finglas, on Apr 15, 2011. He has five previous convictions and received a suspended sentence of three years for violent disorder in Feb 2008.

The court was told at a previous hearing that the three men were involved in a feud with the father of the children and recognised his car when the children’s mother had parked it at the Tesco Clearwater Shopping Centre.

Before the hearing began Judge Mary Ellen Ring said that if there was any difficulty during the sentencing that people would be removed into custody.

In her victim impact statement Bridgette Collins told Judge Ring that the sight of her 2-year-old child trapped in the car as broken glass rained in on them was something no mother should ever have to witness.

She said she was two months’ pregnant at the time and her biggest fear was that she would miscarry as a result of the attack. She has since given birth to a healthy girl.

Garda Mark Reilly told Anne Rowland BL, prosecuting, that Ms Collins was in the supermarket when she heard her 8-year-old daughter screaming from inside the parked car: “They’re breaking up the car and the child.” She turned and saw three men using a baseball bat to smash the car windows while her youngest child, then aged two, was seated in a baby seat in the back of the car.

Michael McDonagh and a co-accused Anthony McDonnell were seen kicking the car.

Ms Collins said she was screaming at the men and “desperately” trying to get her baby out when she felt blows from the baseball bat to the back of her legs.

The court heard that another co-accused, David McDonnell, 31, was shouting at her: “I’m going to kill your husband. I’m going to stab him to death,” before his brother dragged him away.

A female passerby reached into car, unbuckled the child and shouted at Ms Collins: “I have the child.”

Judge Ring said this woman should be commended for intervening.

Ms Collins told the court she often stays up late at night because her children still wake up with nightmares. She said the children were afraid to get into her car or to go to the shops and she had to change where she did her weekly shop.

She said the men would have seen and heard the children screaming and that before the attack one man was heard to say: “Fuck the kids, break it anyway.”

At a previous hearing David McDonnell, previously of Rathvilly Park, Finglas, received a sentence of four years with the final two and half suspended. He has 36 previous convictions for road traffic offences.

His brother Anthony McDonnell, aged 32, of Dunsink Green, Finglas, was sentenced to four years with all but 15 months suspended. He has 17 previous convictions. Ms Collins told Kieran Kelly BL, defending McDonagh, that any physical scars had healed but the family’s emotional scars were still there.