Louth man gets community service for assault

A Louth man who attacked a stranger outside a pub and left him bleeding on the ground has been ordered to carry out 175 hours of community service in lieu of 18 months jail time.

Patrick Grimes (aged 48) had been allowed a second chance to gather €5,000 compensation for his victim. He had initially raised the sum in 2009 but claims he spent it on his mother’s funeral shortly before Christmas.

Grimes, of West Court, Drogheda, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Mr Larry Neville (aged 51), causing him harm outside Mulligan’s Pub, Manor Street in the early hours of May 11, 2008. He has 17 minor road traffic convictions.

Grimes later claimed in interview that the stranger had verbally abused him as he left the pub.

Grimes said: “You can’t take chances when someone abuses you. If someone abuses you, you attack first.”

Garda Trevor Scanlon told Ms Anne Rowland BL, prosecuting, that he found the injured party curled up in “severe pain” on the street minutes after the attack.

Gda Scanlon said the victim told him a man had jumped on him from behind as he left the pub for home.

The victim then looked around and saw a drunk man leaning against a wall beside the nearby Glimmer Man Pub with blood on his right knuckles and on his jeans leg.

Gda Scanlon arrested Grimes and brought him to the garda station, where he later admitted a provoked attack.

Mr Neville received stitches for the extensive cuts to his face and head at Mater Hospital before being taken to a dental hospital for further treatment.

He told gardaí he had felt a blow to the back of his head as he was leaving the pub, that he fell to the ground and the attacker kicked him twice in the face.

He said he missed three weeks of work following the assault.

Gda Scanlon agreed with defence counsel, Mr Luigi Rea BL that his client had been very drunk at the time and was not able to stand without the wall’s support at the scene.

He further agreed that Grimes had broken his tibia bone that night and ultimately ended up in hospital himself.