Man gets three years for assault with wine bottle

A man who smashed his cousin’s teeth with a wine bottle after a New Year’s Eve party before he struck him a second time on the back of the head has received a three-year sentence with 18 months suspended.

Robert Simpson (aged 44) assaulted William O’Connell after an argument because his cousin had asked him to leave his home. Mr O’Connell was sleeping in an armchair when he woke up in shock after he felt like his teeth were smashed.

Simpson was standing in front of him with the wine bottle in his hand and when Mr O’Connell stood up he was struck again on the back of his head. He later needed stitches to his upper and lower lips, the back of his head, had one tooth removed and was treated for severe fractures to two other teeth.

Simpson, who is originally from England but moved to Ireland with his family about 20 years ago, is currently homeless and trying to deal with an alcohol and drug addiction.

He told Judge Katherine Delahunt that Mr O’Connell was both his cousin and childhood friend. “If I could turn back the clock I really would. I would never want to hurt anyone but especially someone in my family,” he said.

Simpson pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing Mr O’Connell harm on January 1, 2007 at the victim’s home in Hillcross Square, Sandyford. He had one previous drink driving conviction.

Simpson told Ms Martina Baxter BL, defending, that there had been an earlier argument between himself and Mr O’Connell but accepted that the attack had been “unprovoked”.

“If I had been of a normal mind it would probably be a case of me never speaking to him again,” he said before he added that he had been drinking heavily and using cannabis that night.

Judge Delahunt described it as a serious assault that had been aggravated by the fact that Simpson had used a weapon.

She accepted that his remorse was genuine and that there had been ongoing attempts to deal with his addiction.

Garda Ciaran O’Neill told Ms Cathleen Noctor BL, prosecuting, that Simpson later told him in interview that the “tone had turned sour” after Mr O’Connell, he and another cousin returned from one house party to the victim’s home where they continued to drink.

He claimed he had “said the wrong thing” and Mr O’Connell had invited him outside for “a fight”. He said he calmed the man down and they both later fell asleep in an armchair and on a sofa.

Simpson said he woke up some time later and was reaching across to get cigarettes off a table when Mr O’Connnell jumped up, grabbed him by the hair and assaulted him after accusing him of trying to steal something.

He told gardaí that he did not remember hitting his cousin with the wine bottle.

Gda O’Neill agreed with Ms Baxter that despite her client’s serious alcohol and drug addiction he had not come to the “adverse attention of gardaí” apart from the drink-driving offence.

He accepted that Simpson had made numerous efforts in the past to deal with his addiction but had always relapsed into substance abuse.