Engineer blinded after alleged assault

An accountant has gone on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for assaulting a former telecommunications company engineer who is now blind in one eye.

Brian Keane (aged 28) of Glenlyon Park, Knocklyon, has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Mr Jairo Andreas Diaz (aged 33) causing him harm by forcing him through a glass door at a Good Friday house party at Richelieu Park, Sandyford between April 14 and 15, 2006.

Prosecution counsel, Ms Fiona Murphy BL, said in her opening address to the jury that it is the State’s case that the accused, an accountant with Petrogas Group Limited, “took exception” to Mr Diaz engaging with his girlfriend and forced him through a glass door.

She said there would be medical evidence that a glass shard pierced through Mr Diaz’s right eyeball leaving him blind in that eye.

Mr Diaz, who transferred here from Columbia with Ericsson in 2000 but left his job last year, told Ms Murphy that he recalled Mr Keane grabbing and trying to pinch him while he was talking to a group in the kitchen around midnight on April 15, 2006.

Mr Diaz said he recalled talking to a “heavy” woman and the surrounding group of people, including a woman in a white top to his left, about rents in Tallaght.

He said he left the kitchen to go back dancing in the living room after Mr Keane approached him because he was frightened of the accused’s behaviour.

He said Mr Keane apologised to him a little later but swung his fist at him during their final encounter at the party immediately before the alleged incident.

The complainant told Ms Murphy that he’d seen a slim woman with her back to him in the kitchen doorway and had tried to get this woman’s attention to dance with him when Mr Keane, who was standing in front of her, made a fist and tried to hit him.

He said he took a few steps back as he dodged the punch but the accused dragged him from the kitchen to the front door and pitched him through the glass.

Mr Diaz said he got up but lay back down and requested an ambulance when he saw blood on his trousers and top.

He told Ms Murphy he remained conscious, was taken to hospital 15 minutes later and then transferred to the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital around 7am on April 15, where he had his first surgery that afternoon.

He said he got several texts in hospital from the accused’s phone apologising to him, saying he didn’t mean to hurt him and wishing him a recovery.

Mr Diaz agreed with Mr Paul Greene SC, defending with Ms Helen O’Hanlon BL, that Mr Keane had told him his girlfriend was the woman in the white top to his left during their first kitchen encounter.

He said he couldn’t recall a conversation with the woman about Columbia being a more dangerous country than Ireland or asking her: “Do you think I’m dangerous now?”

Mr Greene put it to Mr Diaz that his client says he’d been seated at the kitchen table, had observed this interaction and wagged his finger to let him know the woman was his girlfriend.

Mr Diaz said he didn’t see the accused until he confronted him in the group of people.

Mr Greene put it to Mr Diaz that his client’s now ex-girlfriend, Ms Mary Lawlor, told gardaí she didn’t recall Mr Keane squeezing or pinching the complainant during the kitchen encounter but instead described her boyfriend putting his arms around her.

Mr Diaz disputed that Mr Keane hugged Ms Lawlor given she was to his left and the accused approached him from the right.

He said he didn’t recall speaking with the woman at that stage or later on at the party.

He denied he pulled a string on her top or touched her lower back when trying to get her attention before the alleged incident, saying: “That’s something I certainly would remember.”

Mr Greene put it to Mr Diaz that his client says he grabbed the complainant and tried to march him out of the area because he was upsetting Ms Lawlor and both men ended up falling through the glass door in the struggle.

Mr Diaz replied that he found it difficult to believe he would put up a struggle to try to free himself from Mr Keane’s grip.

Mr Diaz told Mr Greene that he wouldn’t offer any resistance when counsel suggested that he grabbed Mr Keane’s forearms.

Mr Greene put it to the complainant that his client received cuts on his hands on the night consistent with falling through a glass door.

The trial continues before Judge Tony Hunt and a jury of nine men and three women.