Man jailed for five years for breaking into house party and assaulting men

A young alcoholic has been jailed for five years for breaking into a Dublin house party and assaulting two men with an iron bar on October 30, 2005.

John Joyce (aged 24) of Whitestown Park, Blanchardstown, but also with an address in Baillieboro, Co. Cavan, burst into the party with two others and beat Mr Ian Coyle in the head, arms, ribs and legs with his iron bar in an upstairs bedroom.

Detective Garda Karl McCormick said Mr Coyle told gardaí that three men burst into the Bellgree, Tyrellstown house with an iron bar, hammer and padlocked chain minutes after he heard a knock at the door in the early hours of the morning.

Det. Garda McCormick told prosecution counsel, Mr Vincent Henaghan BL, that Joyce beat the young man who had fled upstairs before going to the back garden to beat another partygoer.

The detective garda said Mr Cormac Brannigan ran out the back door and tried to hold it shut when he saw the three assailants enter the house, but was discovered and beaten with the hammer and chain as he lay coiled in the garden.

Det. Garda McCormick said he arrested Joyce to test him for drugs when he met him two hours after the attack, adding blood found on his jeans matched Mr Brannigan through DNA analysis.

Det. Garda McCormick said Joyce, who describes himself as an alcoholic, claimed he was provoked by a row with the house owner during a drinking session earlier that evening.

The father-of-one apologised to the injured parties through his counsel, Mr Shane Costello BL, and offered €3,000 in compensation which his father raised through selling his car.

Judge Patrick McCartan said in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that there was "no explanation whatsoever for this assault which was horrendous in its scale" but suspended the final two years of sentence.