'White knight' fined after wrongful attack

A "white knight" father of two who attacked a man because he wrongly thought he had stolen a DVD player has been fined €1,000 and may have the option of community service in lieu of jail.

Alan Kavanagh (aged 23) of Neilstown Gardens, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Noel Timmons on Neilstown Avenue, on January 18, 2003.

Judge Donagh McDonagh said Kavanagh arrived on the scene like a "white knight" but he got it wrong. If he had intervened in "a more suitable manner" he would not be in trouble now and should have looked for an explanation before he "swept into action".

Judge McDonagh adjourned sentencing next May and ordered that Kavanagh pay a €1,000 fine before then. He also ordered a probation service report to establish if Kavanagh was suitable for community service.

Garda Kieran Bruce told Mr Vincent Heneghan BL, prosecuting, that Mr Timmons had brought his DVD player over to a friend’s house to watch some films and was walking home when he was stopped by two women who accused him of stealing it.

Mr Timmons then noticed two men behind him before he received a blow to the back of his head and fell to the ground. He dropped the DVD player when he fell and Kavanagh handed it to the women who later handed it back to Mr Timmons.

Garda Bruce said Kavanagh was found that night on the same street with a bloody hand and told gardaí he hit "some man a few digs" after "an ole one" told him this man had stolen a DVD player.

Kavanagh’s co-accused was ordered to carry out community service in lieu of a prison sentence when he pleaded guilty to a lesser assault charge.

Kavanagh had two previous convictions for criminal damage and public order offences from 2003 but he had not come to the attention of gardai since.

Garda Bruce told Mr Heneghan that Mr Timmons was left with bruising to his eye and a fracture to his skull but it was accepted that the fracture was caused by him falling to the ground.

He agreed with Mr Bernard Condon BL, defending, that it was clear Kavanagh honestly believed Mr Timmons had stolen the DVD and that when he discovered this wasn’t the case he fully co-operated with the garda investigation.