English man jailed for glass assault on woman

An English man who smashed a glass into a woman’s face because an expected “romantic engagement” did not happen has been sentenced to four years with the final 18 months suspended.

Ms Natalya Albanova (then 49) was left with permanent scarring and nerve damage to the left side of her face that “will last her to her dying day”. She continues to suffer from depression as a result and cannot undergo any plastic surgery because of the nerve damage.

Olawale Olojo (aged 43) of Sheridan Court, Dorset Street Upper, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm at Longs Place on October 5, 2008. He has 34 previous convictions, 18 from Ireland and 16 from the UK which mostly involved theft and fraud.

Olojo had been out in Ms Albanova’s company all night, along with a larger group of people, when he asked could he share a taxi home with her. During the journey he told her he was hungry and had nowhere to stay for the night so she acceded to his request to sleep at her house.

Garda Anne-Marie Callaghan told Ms Anne-Marie Lawlor BL, prosecuting, that at this stage Ms Albanova told Olojo that nothing “romantic” would happen between them, but she made him some food and set up a bed for him in her sitting room.

She later told gardaí that Olojo continued to “come on” to her and at one stage pushed her back onto the mattress he had been given to sleep on. She managed to get away from him and headed for bed.

Ms Albanova had just got off the phone to a friend confirming that she had got home safely when Olojo shouted at her: “I wasted all night on you, you stupid b****” before he hit her with his first causing her to fall backwards.

He threw her phone to the ground before he jumped on her, hit her a second time and smashed a glass into the left side of her face.

Ms Albanova told Olojo to call an ambulance but he jumped out a sitting room window leaving her to contact the emergency services.

The court heard that Olojo had taken two grammes of cocaine and a significant amount of alcohol that night

Gda Callaghan said when she arrived on the scene there was a considerable amount of blood around and there was blood seeping through a bandage that Ms Albanova had wrapped around her face.

She was taken to hospital by ambulance and Olojo was nominated as a suspect and later arrested.

He initially denied striking the woman with his fists but later said he had “lashed out and made contact with her face without meaning to”.

He told gardaí he had believed there would be a “romantic engagement” which was why he had gone back to her house but later admitted that she may just have wanted some company.

Judge Desmond Hogan said it had been a “sudden and unexpected attack in which the victim had little or no knowledge what was about to happen and was not in a position to defend herself or get away.”

He said Ms Albanova had been quite obviously badly injured yet Olojo had “scarpered”. He added that the injuries the woman suffered would last to her “dying day”.

“A scar on a lady’s face is not a trivial matter nor is a scar on a man’s face,” Judge Hogan said before he suspended the last 18 months of the sentence having taken into account Olojo’s plea and co-operation with gardaí.