Men avoid jail for taxi attack

A taxi driver and choir singer was forced to cancel an audition with the RTÉ choir after two young men punched and kicked him around the head over a €26 fare.

Feargal MacEoin suffered “huge mental and physical scarring” as a result of a “gratuitous” attack by James Murphy, aged 20, and Dean Daly, aged 19.

Yesterday, both men avoided a prison term after Judge Mary Ellen Ring suspended a sentence of three years. She said she had to have regard to their youth and the fact that neither has any previous convictions. She described the assault as a “shocking and unprovoked attack”.

Murphy of Alderwood Rise, Springfield, Tallaght, and Daly of Maplewood Park, Tallaght, both pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm at Alderwood Place, Tallaght, on Apr 28, 2012, and to robbery of a phone, a wallet and cash during the same incident.