Two men sentenced after name-calling assault

A Kildare man and his friend who beat up a stranger and kicked him in the head, leaving him unconscious, after "slagging" off his name have been sentenced to 18 months and two years respectively.

Gavin Mahady (aged 22) of Glendara, Kill started jeering Mr Fergal O’Driscoll in Abrakebabra on Westmoreland Street in Dublin city centre after he learned the victim’s name.

A scuffle broke out between the pair but they were separated and Mr O’Driscoll apologised to the staff before he and his friend left the restaurant.

Minutes later, Mr O’Driscoll heard someone shouting "Fergie, Fergie, Fergie" and looked up to see Mahady and Keith Farrell (aged 23) of Cherrywood Cresent, Clondalkin following him.

Mahady then charged at him and they fell to the ground where a fight broke out.

Garda Matthew MacKenzie-Smith told Mr Colm O’Briain BL, prosecuting, that when Mr O’Driscoll’s friend tried to intervene, Farrell told him not to or he would "knife" him.

Farrell then got involved in the fight and witnesses saw him kicking the victim in the head. Other witnesses said they saw Mahady punching Mr O’Driscoll and headbutting him.

Mahady and Farrell pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm on November 9, 2006. Both had €5,000 in court as a token of their remorse.

Judge Katherine Delahunt called it "unprovoked" and "premeditated" attack which caused "continuing trauma" to the victim.

"A kick to the head is delivered with the intention of causing the maximum damage to the victim," she commented. "It is often much more serious than an attack with a weapon."

She sentenced Mahady to 18 months with the final nine suspended and sentenced Farrell to two years, also with nine suspended.

Mahady, who is a prominent footballer at his local GAA club in Kill, has no previous convictions, while Farrell had nine convictions, which included road traffic and drug offences.

Gda MacKenzie-Smith told Judge Katherine Delahunt that although Farrell threatened Mr O’Driscoll with a knife he did not have one.

A victim impact report indicated that he no longer felt safe in the city at night and he described the attack "as the most traumatic and harrowing he ever had to endure".

Gda MacKenzie-Smith agreed with both Mr John Byrne BL, defending Farrell and Mr Shane Costelloe BL, defending Mahady that witnesses saw Mahady and the victim run towards each other and that Mr O’Driscoll had been gesticulating at his attacker.

Mr Costelloe said Mahady did not want the court to view what happened beforehand as "a justification for what he had done" and that he feels "great shame and remorse" for what happened.

He said Mahady’s probation report was "remarkable" and he had "never seen anything like it before." Mr Costelloe appealed to Judge Delahunt to structure a sentence that will allow his client to pursue his ambition of following his father and joining the mountain rescue team.

A letter from Kill GAA Club said that in Mahady’s history with the club he had never been sent off in a match or even reprimanded by a referee.

Mr Byrne told Judge Delahunt that Farrell wanted to offer a very sincere apology to Mr O’Driscoll and asked her to accept that his behaviour was "out of character".