Three men ‘beat the lard out of taxi driver’

Three Dublin men “beat the lard out of a taxi driver” and yesterday the sentencing judge said they could not avoid a conviction even though they were never in trouble before.

Judge Olann Kelleher said the issue was not whether or not they would avoid a conviction but whether they would be jailed.

He decided at the end of the sentencing hearing at Cork District Court that they could each do 200 hours of community service instead of four months in prison.