Student jailed for unprovoked attack that left another with 18 metal plates in his skull
Imposing three years in prison with one year suspended on Alan Carr at Galway Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Rory McCabe said an immediate custodial sentence was warranted to reflect the gravity of the violent assault. File photo
Eighteen titanium plates hold a medical student’s facial bones in place since he was kicked at full force into the side of his head during an unprovoked attack in a fast-food restaurant.
The attacker, GMIT engineering student Alan Carr (aged 20), from Thullanoone, Moycullen, Galway, was captured on CCTV "parading" through a Supermac’s outlet at Cross Street, Galway, "like a boxer who had just won a fight" leaving his victim unconscious on the floor in a pool of his own blood.
Imposing three years in prison with one year suspended on Carr at Galway Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Rory McCabe said an immediate custodial sentence was warranted to reflect the gravity of the violent assault and to act as a warning to other people "that there is a bill to be paid and there are consequences if they get intoxicated and assault someone".
Carr pleaded guilty to assaulting fourth-year medical student Conor O’Malley, causing him harm, at Supermac’s, Cross Street, Galway, on March 13, 2019.
Garda Pat Casey gave evidence Mr O’Malley had been at a climate change seminar in NUIG and later went to a networking event in a city pub with two friends.
In the early hours of March 13, 2019, they went to Supermac’s and were standing at a high table when Carr came in and picked on Mr O’Malley, putting his arm around his shoulder and leaning in on top of him.
Garda Casey said that as Mr O’Malley tried to push him away, Carr punched him in the face repeatedly. He was knocked to the ground and as he attempted to get up, Carr kicked him into the left side of his head at full force before leaving the restaurant.
Judge McCabe viewed CCTV footage of the assault on a Garda laptop.
He noted with dismay that as Mr O’Malley lay unconscious on the floor bleeding from his nose and mouth, Carr could be seen "parading out through the restaurant, like a boxer who had just won a fight".
Eighteen titanium plates and screws were fitted to hold the left side of the victim’s face and eye socket in position. He was told before surgery there was a risk he might lose the sight in his left eye.
In his victim impact statement Mr O’Malley said he believed the assault had been an attempt on his life and he would never feel the same again.
“I was used as a human punching bag, battered for entertainment and fun - for a high.” He explained how his head had been lined up “like like a football on a penalty spot” and someone hurled their full weight behind a swing of their leg, aimed directly at his brain.
“Eighteen titanium plates hold the pieces of my face together. A screw slots into my eye socket to make sure that I can see. They do a good job at keeping the bones and shattered fragments in the right place. I wish they could keep my life so steady.
“The thing that always plays on a loop in my mind is me waking up on that Supermac’s floor in a pool of my own blood that was pouring out of my mouth and nose. How shocked, confused and scared I was.
“I was never in a fight in my life. I wasn’t in one that night either.
“Thankfully, my skull and the 18 shattered pieces of it did their job and protected my brain. A victim was sought out that night and I was unlucky enough that it just happened to be me.”
Mr O’Malley’s left jaw bone was broken in two places, his cheekbone was shattered into multiple pieces, his nose was broken, his sinuses were fractured, his left eye socket was "crumpled inwards like a concertina" and the roof of his mouth was broken and left completely floppy.
“Your face is such an intimate part of your body and mine feels like it’s not my own anymore, it feels tense and heavy, like a hunk of metal,” Mr O’Malley said.
He went for counselling but found it difficult to talk about his feelings.
“I feel different and alone now, set apart from the crowd, physically held together but permanently scarred because I’ve experienced something that others have not.
“I had my head lined up like a football on a penalty spot and someone hurled their full weight behind a swing of their leg, aimed directly at what makes me human.
He said Carr tried to extinguish his life for absolutely no reason. There was not a single bit of provocation, he said.
Carr apologised in court to Mr O’Malley. He explained he wanted to apologise at the time but was advised by his legal team not to make any contact back in 2019.
An offer of €10,000 was declined by Mr O’Malley who was accompanied in court by his parents.
Defence barrister, Brendan Browne, said his client had expressed genuine, deep remorse when interviewed in June 2019 by Garda Casey and was “sick to his stomach” watching himself commit the assault on the CCTV.
The court heard he was highly intoxicated at the time, had no previous convictions and was still a student at GMIT.
Judge McCabe said the impact this life-changing assault had on the victim was incalculable and the violence used extreme. The interests of justice required an immediate custodial sentence, he said.
“CCTV does not lie. The level of violence used was frightening.
“His injuries are life-changing. His victim impact statement is perfectly reasonable and sadly predictable, outlining a loss of control through alcohol by the defendant.
“There is nothing extraordinary in the facts of this case because, sadly, this is something that happens in many towns throughout Ireland on a regular basis,” the judge observed.
He said the appropriate sentence was three years with the final year suspended for two years.
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