Bouncer fined €5,000 after assault
A bouncer who assaulted a man he had turned away at the door of Angel’s lap-dancing club for being drunk, has been fined €5,000 and given a three-year suspended sentence.
Raymond Murphy (aged 43) of Susanville Road, Drumcondra was also ordered by Judge Donagh McDonagh at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to carry out 250 hours community service.
Murphy pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Mr Oliver Scally at the corner of Fitzwilliam Square and Leeson Street on July 6, 2005.
"You may have been struck yourself in this incident and, if you were, you deserved it," Judge McDonagh told Murphy.
Judge McDonagh said that Murphy attacked the "unfortunate victim" in a particularly savage manner. He accepted there was a "very minor element of provocation" but said that as a bouncer, Murphy had to acknowledge he would be dealing with people who were not thinking rationally.
"If you are not able to control your temper, you should not take on a job where you will have to deal with provocation," Judge McDonagh said.
Garda James Curtis told Mr Michael Bowman BL, prosecuting, that Mr Scally said he had tried to gain entry to Angels lap dancing club where a bouncer told him he had had too much to drink.
Mr Scally told him he thought he could talk his way in and said he might have put his hands on the shoulders of the bouncer, which he accepted was a stupid thing to do.
He said he had meant it in a playful manner, but accepted he should not have done this. He then became scared by the expression on Murphy’s face and ran down the street.
Garda Curtis said Mr Scally told him that Murphy ran down the street after him and he ran across the road and slipped. He said Murphy was on top of him and he did not remember much until he came round on the road where a taxi had stopped.
The taxi driver told gardai that Murphy was the prime instigator of the violence but said he had seen another individual engaged in the assault. This taxi driver then went with gardai to Angels where he identified Murphy who was arrested.
Gda Curtis said Murphy accepted he had assaulted Mr Scally who was taken to St James’s Hospital where he was diagnosed with bruising to his face, a laceration to his eyebrow and a fracture to his cheekbone.
Mr Luán Ó Braonáin BL, defending, said that what the victim in the case had described as a playful attempt to touch the cheeks and shoulders of Murphy had been described by his client as a whack to the side of the face, leaving his nose bloodied.
He said there were some reports to back this up. This action provoked Murphy into a state of anger and rage but he accepted he had gone "totally over the top" in the way he went about assaulting Mr Scally, and had acknowledged this in his interview with gardai. He said Murphy had pleaded guilty as soon as the case came to the court.
Mr Ó Braonáin said Murphy had brought €5,000 to court as compensation but that Mr Scully had indicated he was not interested in receiving it.
Dr Francis Kelly, Murphy’s GP, told Mr Ó Braonáin that Murphy was suffering from depression aggravated by stressors in his life such as the suicide of his brother and the break up of his marriage.
He said Murphy had not displayed any violent tendencies to him but he had "feelings of regret and resentment that he was not progressing in his life as he had hoped".
Ms Evelyn Taylor, counsellor and psychotherapist, told Mr Ó Braonáin that Murphy appeared to have a "victim mentality" and was "simmering like a pressure cooker". She said he was emotionally illiterate but had expressed to her that this incident "was a serious error of judgement on his behalf".
