Man jailed for punching garda during football match

A Dublin man who punched a garda’s teeth loose while they were playing on rival football teams has been jailed for 18 months.

Garda Yvonne Bolton revealed that Eoin O’Connor’s Rafter Celtic side had been “hostile” toward the other team throughout the short match, which was abandoned after 25 minutes because of the assault.

She agreed with Mr Dean Kelly BL, defending O’Connor, that his client’s attack was not due to the victim being a garda but a reaction to slipping up with a kick during the game.

Mr Kelly submitted to Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that his client had experienced “a rush of blood to the head” after botching a corner kick and turned his aggression on the player marking him, Garda Mervin Minto.

O’Connor (aged 26) of James Street, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty to assaulting Gda Minto causing him harm at Crumlin’s Brickfield Park on September 29, 2007.

He has 11 previous convictions including wilful use of a horse to cause damage in a public place.

Gda Bolton agreed with Mr Kelly that a stranger had slashed his client’s face at the 2008 Oxegen music festival in Punchestown, Co Kildare and had never been apprehended.

She told Mr Cormac Quinn BL, prosecuting, that Gda Minto’s St Canices United team had been playing Rafter Celtic in Division 1 of the United Churches Football League 2007.

She said the game’s referee had later commented that it was one of the worst matches for player hostilities he had ever encountered in 20 years.

The referee said Gda Minto had asked him to keep an eye on O’Connor after an earlier slap during the match.

Gda Bolton told Mr Quinn that O’Connor came at his victim from behind and punched him on his blind spot.

She said Gda Minto’s two front upper teeth were knocked back into his head and his whole bottom row came loose.

Dentists have estimated that Gda Minto will have to get €22,400 of repairs and replacements to his teeth over his lifetime.

Gda Bolton said O’Connor initially denied attacking Gda Minto and took a trial date but eventually pleaded guilty to the offence.

Mr Kelly submitted to Judge Delahunt that his client wished to apologise for his actions on the day.

Judge Delahunt said: “Persons engaged in sports have to have the expectation that they can go out on a Sunday or Saturday and play for pleasure, without fear of assault or thuggery.”