Builder jailed for assault on musician

A Connemara builder has been sentenced to seven years in prison with the final three years suspended for 10 years for an assault on traditional Irish musician, Noel Hill, in a pub toilet on St Stephen’s night seven years ago, which has left the victim with lifelong injuries.

Imposing sentence at Galway Circuit Criminal Court today, Judge Rory McCabe said this had been a horrible, nasty and vicious attack and the consequences for the victim were appalling.

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 57, contrary to Section 4 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, at Tí Padraig Mairtín Beag in Leitir Mór, Connemara on St Stephen’s Day, 2008, when his trial opened before a jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last November.

He changed his plea to guilty on the second day of the trial after Mr Hill gave harrowing evidence of the injuries he sustained on the night to a stunned jury.

Plastic surgeon Patrick McCann had told the jury that Mr Hill’s left eye socket had been pushed back into his skull “like an egg in an eggcup” and he had replaced the bone under the socket with titanium mesh in 2009.

Sgt Ronan Mahon told the sentence hearing in February that Mr Hill had been in the pub that night and was attacked from behind when he went to the toilet.

He was standing in a cubicle with the door open and looked over his shoulder to see the accused behind him. He was then viciously assaulted and received several punches to the head.

Mr Hill knew the accused as Michael Bartley Mharcuisin Folan, a builder who had carried out work on a house Mr Hill was renovating in Pointe, Carraroe.

Mr Hill spent 25 minutes in February reading his victim impact statement. “I was certain I was going to die. I had a near death experience.

“I am a professional musician but I cannot play for long periods anymore. My left side is still weak, six years later,” he said.

The court heard a dispute over payment for the renovations Folan had carried out for the victim was the reason for the assault.

Judge Rory McCabe heard in February that Folan had serious health issues himself and was attending counselling for alcohol and anger management issues.

Yesterday, Judge McCabe said the efforts the accused had made in the interim to rehabilitate and given his personal family circumstances, he said he would suspend the final three years of the seven-year sentence for 10 years.