Man attacked his garda brother

A man told his ‘hysterical’ 13-year-old nephew after he had pummelled the boy’s father he was sorry that he had to see it, “but the fat pig bastard had it coming to him”.

At Ennis District Court yesterday, 51-year-old Garda Jim McNamara told the court how he was covered in blood and lost three teeth as a result of a ‘frenzied attack’ by his 30-year-old brother, Andrew, at the family home at Ennistymon, Co Clare.

Judge Gráinne O’Neill jailed Andrew McNamara of Ardnaculla, Ennistymon, for six months for carrying out the assault causing harm on June 17, 2015.

Judge O’Neill also imposed a two-month prison term to run concurrent to the six months on Andrew McNamara for a separate assault he carried out on a second brother, Frank McNamara, 47, at the family home last October, the night before their mother’s month’s mind mass, when he head-butted his brother into the side of the face.

Recounting the June 17 assault yesterday, Garda McNamara explained he was off-duty and had travelled with his son to his parents’ home where Andrew McNamara also lives.

Recalling the assault, witnessed by his parents who have both since died, the Kilrush-based Garda said: “I was punched with a closed fist by Andrew, I was head-butted, I tried to pull back and he hit me hard in the mouth with his head.”

He said: “I felt intense pain, I was punched again, I fell to my knees. I pulled myself into a ball and Andrew caught me in a headlock and I was kneed in the face continually. My son was crying uncontrollably, hysterically and Andrew went over to my son and he said ‘Sorry, you had to see that, but that fat pig bastard had it coming to him’. All through the assault, Andrew kept screaming ‘you fat pig bastard, now you are getting it, you fat pig bastard’.”

After the assault was over, Garda McNamara went over to his son and, “I didn’t realise at the time, but my face was destroyed because of the teeth that were knocked out, there was blood all around my mouth, my lips were cut and there was blood on my shirt and my son began screaming again when he saw the state of me”.

In evidence, Garda McNamara described how Andrew McNamara had earlier become agitated and verbally abusive on the garda’s arrival. Garda McNamara said that as he was talking to his father, Andrew McNamara roared ‘what the fuck are you saying? You are always talking behind my back’”.

The garda said his brother told him: “I want you out the fucking back now” and I said ‘Andrew, I am not talking to you’.

Garda McNamara said his brother was in a complete rant, started screeching and then punched him. He said: “It was a blitz attack, I didn’t have a chance to defend myself.” Asked by Judge O’Neill how relations are now between the brothers, Garda McNamara said “if anything they are worse”.

He said: “Andrew tends to spit at my feet when I walk by. At my mother’s funeral I put out my hand during the sign of the peace — just that we could shelve what was happening for the duration of the funeral — and he turned away from me.” He added: “Also at my mother’s funeral there was trouble between him and my father because he refused to come under the coffin with me and my other brother, Frank.”

Garda McNamara said he did not want compensation from his brother. He said: “I want nothing to do with him.”

Insp Tom Kennedy told the court Andrew McNamara has 24 previous convictions including four for assault and was jailed in 2013 for five months for an assault.

In sentencing, Judge O’Neill said an aggravating factor was that the assault took place in front of a teenage boy who became hysterical.

She concluded: “If there is any way back to mend relations, I hope the McNamaras can find it.”