Builder pleads guilty to assault on trad musician

A builder will be sentenced in July for an assault on traditional Irish musician Noel Hill in a pub toilet on St Stephen’s night seven years ago. The victim was left with lifelong injuries.

Michael Folan, aged 55, from Teach Mór, Lettermullen, Co Galway, had initially pleaded not guilty to a single charge of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Mr Hill, aged 56, contrary to section 4 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, at Tí Padraig Mairtín Beag in Leitir Mór, Connemara, in 2008.

He changed his plea to guilty on the second day of the trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court after Mr Hill had given harrowing evidence of the injuries he sustained on the night to a stunned jury.