Friends attacked man after smashing window with golf club

Two friends who had been involved in a heavy drinking session attacked a man after he confronted them because one of them smashed his girlfriend's car window with a golf club.

Mr Christian Carroll chased after Darren O'Connor (aged 20) of Woodhazel Close and John Conroy (aged 22) of Shanghan Road, both Ballymun, after he spotted Conroy breaking the car window.

He caught up with them and asked why they had damaged the car, explaining that he didn't want to cause any trouble.

Conroy then pushed him over and wrestled him to the ground, biting his finger, before O'Connor hit him in the face and took the same golf club and hit him over the back of the head and arm.

O'Connor pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to Mr Carroll and Conroy pleaded guilty to criminal damage of the car and assaulting Mr Carroll on April 14, 2006 at Shanghan Road, Ballymun.

Conroy received a two month suspended sentence from Judge Frank O'Donnell after he heard he had no previous convictions and had money in court to pay for the broken window.

Judge O'Donnell remanded O'Connor on continuing bail to a date next October when he is expected to have funds available from a pending civil case to offer as compensation for Mr Carroll.

Judge O'Donnell said O'Connor's case was "an entirely different matter" after telling Conroy that he hoped he had learned his lesson because "what you started ended up very serious for your victim and your friend".

Garda Nicky Conneely told Mr Patrick McGrath BL, prosecuting, that Mr Carroll was taken to the Mater Hospital that night where he received seven stitches to his head but he has since made a full recovery.

O'Connor had 16 previous convictions including public order, possession of knives, theft and criminal damage offences.

He agreed with Mr Luigi Rea BL, defending Conroy, that there was previously no animosity between Mr Carroll and the two defendants and his client was unable to offer an explanation for what he did.

He further agreed that Conroy later told gardai that he had no recollection of the night because he had been drinking all day.

Gda Conneely accepted that Conroy was genuinely embarrassed and ashamed about his actions on the night.

He agreed with Ms Caroline Biggs BL, defending O'Connor, that her client was arrested that night and was so intoxicated that he urinated on his clothes while being questioned at the garda station.

He told gardaí that eight litres of vodka had been shared between six people that day and he had also taken a number of tablets. He had no recollection of the incident.

Mr Rea asked Judge O'Donnell to take into account that there was no sinister motive behind his client's "outrageous behaviour" that night and that he had not come to garda attention since.

Ms Biggs said O'Connor wished to express his apologies to the victim for his actions.

She asked for the case to be adjourned to allow O'Connor time to have funds before the courts that he expected to gain from an future civil action, "so he can, in a small way, make up for his despicable actions".