Judge gives Traveller five years for walking stick assault

A Traveller who brutally assaulted a man with a brass topped walking stick and then stripped him in line with a tradition to "strip him of his dignity" has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Patrick James Lee’s victim later turned up at Dun Laoghaire garda station with no trousers or shoes to report the assault. He was also covered in glue because one of his attackers had thrown a glue gun at him.

Lee, also known as Patrick Lee McCann (aged 24), of no fixed abode, had robbed the walking stick from a 45-year-old acquaintance earlier that night after beating him up over a row about the use of a phone.

Lee was orphaned as a nine-year-old child after his father was killed in a car crash when he was three and his mother took her own life six years later.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Charles Maughan (aged 41) causing him harm at West Pier Halting Site, and to robbing Joe Kenna at Oliver Plunket Road, both Dun Laoghaire on September 15, 2006.

Judge Katherine Delahunt told Lee, after viewing photographs of the injuries sustained by both men, that he was lucky he wasn’t facing a more serious offence in relation to Mr Maughan.

She noted that he kicked the victim in the head and said that the court considered that this level of attack "is done with intent to cause maximum harm".

Judge Delahunt accepted there wasn’t a specific reason for the attack and that it had been fuelled by a day’s drinking. She also accepted that Lee had a tragic background and that he might have "fallen through the cracks" because of the early death of his parents.

Judge Delahunt suspended the last two years of the sentence having taken into account the "fair evidence" of Detective Sergeant Francis Byrne that Lee was not the ring leader in the assault on Mr Maughan.

Det Sgt Byrne told prosecuting counsel, Mr Bernard Condon BL, that it was a tradition with members of the Travelling community that if you strip someone, you are stripping them of their dignity.

He said that Mr Maughan answered a knock on the door of his mobile home to find Lee there with two others. He was then kicked in the face and punched while one of them held him down and Lee used the stolen walking stick to beat him.

Det Sgt Byrne said the gang then tried to strip him but only managed to take his trousers off before they stole €75 from him and left. Mr Maughan was taken by ambulance to St Vincent’s Hospital as soon as he presented himself to the garda station.

The walking stick was later found in his home and although the victim didn’t know Lee, he was later nominated as a suspect after a garda said he had seen him earlier that day with the stick.

Det Sgt Byrne said earlier that night Lee and three others had been drinking in Mr Kenna’s home. Lee later punched Mr Kenna three or four times in the face when he told him he had been on his (Mr Kenna’s) mobile phone too long.

Mr Kenna went upstairs and thought the group had left but he was suddenly knocked to the floor and kicked "30 times from head to toe" before a cross and chain was "yanked" from his neck.

He then heard Lee shout "strip him" before he made off with the walking stick, which belonged to Mr Kenna’s father, €80 of his dole money and a bus travel pass.

Lee later admitted to robbing Mr Kenna and beating Mr Maughan but he denied taking anything from him.

He had four previous convictions, which included robbery and possession of an iron bar with intent.

Det Sgt Byrne agreed with defence counsel, Mr Remy Farrell BL, that the incidents happened on the day both Mr Maughan and Mr Kenna had collected their dole.

He accepted that there was a pattern among Lee, Mr Kenna and others, to meet up every Thursday to "essentially drink the money they had just received".

Det Sgt Byrne further agreed that many of the problems Lee had, related to drink and a lack of structure in his life due to the death of his parents when he was still a child.

Mr Farrell told Judge Delahunt that after the death of his parents, Lee spent much of his life in various foster care homes and being looked after by an extended family. He had effectively "fallen through the cracks".