Victim left scarred for life after bottle attack

A 20-year-old man has been jailed for three years for an assault with a bottle which left a man scarred for life.

Jason Conway, of Deerpark Crescent, Killarney, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault causing harm at St Anthony’s Place on Nov 26, 2010.

The attack took place in a laneway in the town, where a row “restarted” from an encounter in a nightclub between the three injured parties — who are all from Co Limerick — Conway, and a friend of Conway’s, Sgt Leo Randles told the court. The seriously injured man’s face was cut from the top of his ear and across his left cheek. He received 10 stitches and had to be operated on three times. The cut interfered with ducts, plastic surgery is needed, and the victim had difficulty opening and closing his mouth, the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee was told.

He suffered emotional and mental scars as well as physical ones, and was unable to come to the court yesterday.

The second victim was struck over the head with the bottle by Conway and he was hospitalised in Croom with concussion; the third victim received cuts to the eyebrow and the back of the head. Both of these men had now recovered.

Gardaí did not realise the gravity of the assault on the night, as Conway changed his shirt. However, a taxi driver told gardaí of Conway having a shirt with blood on it and there were 11 witnesses to various parts of the fracas, including a garda who saw Conway put a broken bottle under a car.

The court was told Conway had been extremely aggressive as a youth, and had 20 previous convictions, three of which were for assault causing harm and two for offensive weapons.

Judge Carroll Moran sentenced him to three years, from September, saying he had taken into account the guilty plea. He handed down two years for each of the other two counts and is to serve these concurrently.