Assault victim lost foot after being hit by car and beaten

A Dublin man has gone on trial for running over a man he found in his ex-girlfriend’s house, causing him to lose a foot.

Mr Joseph Cullen (aged 42) is accused of beating the man and hitting him twice with a car after chasing him from his former partner’s home.

Mr Cullen of Adare Avenue, Coolock has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm and causing serious harm to Mr Kevin Byrne on March 8, 2008 at St Helena’s Road, Finglas.

Mr Byrne gave evidence that he was at a work night out and was sharing a taxi home with two fellow employees. The taxi dropped one of the employees home while he and Ms Jackie White continued on to her house.

Mr Byrne told prosecuting counsel, Mr Sean Guerin BL, that he wanted to use the bathroom so he went into Ms White’s house and the taxi drove off. He said Ms White indicated that she was going upstairs to use the bathroom and he sat downstairs.

He said shortly after there were two loud bangs at the front door and Ms White came down the stairs. He said a man entered the house, looked at him and roared. He said Ms White then told the man, “it’s only Kevin from work.”

Mr Byrne said the man then went into the kitchen and opened a cutlery drawer. He said Ms White followed and shouted, “No Joey. Run Kevin.”

Mr Byrne said he ran out of the house and down the road, hearing the man chasing him and shouting, “I’m going to get you.”

He said he continued running until he was hit by a car which sent him rolling down a hill. He told Mr Guerin that when he stopped rolling, a car pulled up and three men, including the man from the house, got out and started to beat him.

He said they punched and kicked him for “a long time” and chipped his tooth before he was able to get up and run away again.

He said he was struck again by the car which flipped him into he air. He said when he landed on the ground his legs were underneath the car and it felt like his right leg was not there.

The witness said the three men got out and he pleaded with them to not attack him. One of the men said “he’s had enough” and they got in the car and drove away. Mr Byrne said he had to undergo eight operations including one to amputate his right foot.

Mr Byrne told Mr Bernard Condon SC, defending, that he had five bottles of beer that night and considered himself sober.

Mr Condon asked him why Ms White went upstairs to use the bathroom when there was no bathroom up there. The witness replied that he was not aware of the layout of her house.

Mr Byrne agreed that he had helped Ms White put the key in her front door but this was because she was shaking with the cold and not because she was “blind drunk.”