No jail for steroid-fuelled man who spear-tackled wife
Daniel Spencer, aged 30, formerly of Tír Cluain, Cloyne, Co Cork, said through Donal McCarthy, defending, that he had been taking steroids for three weeks before the assault. They had altered his personality and combined with the alcohol on the night.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said his concern with this case had caused him to adjourn sentencing a number of times, but he was prepared to finalise it yesterday with a suspended jail term.
“This man pleaded guilty to a nasty assault on his wife in April 2015. It was a very nasty unprovoked incident. He flung her to the ground and caused her injuries,” the judge said yesterday.
The judge recalled evidence that the assault took the form of a spear-tackle, a rugby move whereby a player illegally upturns an opponent and drives them head-first into the ground.
“He pleaded guilty and co-operated. As a partnership they are still together,” said Judge Ó Donnabháin. “A previous conviction for bad behaviour sufficiently concerned me to keep it before the court for a prolonged time. He has behaved himself since and he has obeyed a curfew.”
Mr McCarthy said that Spencer no longer drank alcohol and had stopped using steroids.
He pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to his wife, Sarah Egan, outside a nightclub at Hanover St, Cork, shortly before 2am on April 7, 2015.
Sarah Egan said in Cork Circuit Criminal Court last year: “It was a drunken accident, your honour.”
Judge Ó Donnabháin replied: “It was not an accident… It was a vicious assault.”
