Victim of dancefloor assault urges judge not to jail assailants

Man was knocked unconscious and lost two front teeth in unprovoked attack

The assault happened at the Secret Garden nightclub of Rearden's Bar in Cork City. File picture: Dan Linehan

A young man who was knocked out on a nightclub dancefloor by two Cobh men told the judge he bears no ill-will towards his attackers.

Jacob Kelly-Wilmot, of College Drive, College Manor, Cobh, Co Cork, and Seán Thomas, of Hartland’s Point, Cobh, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm to 21-year-old Darragh Cronin at the Secret Garden nightclub of Rearden’s on November 6, 2022.

Sergeant John Gleeson showed CCTV of the dancefloor assault and described how the attack occurred.

Sgt Gleeson said Seán Thomas pointed at the injured party with his elbow, unseen by the victim, and he also made a second gesture of a sleeping person, putting his head to the side on his joined hands. This is immediately followed with him striking the injured party with his elbow into the face.

Jacob Kelly-Wilmot can then be seen striking him on the floor. The two men then walk away, laughing, the sergeant said.

The injured party gave a victim impact statement about the effects of this assault on him, not least having two front teeth knocked out. He said that apart from the pain and the high financial cost of dental repairs, now and into the future, it had affected his speech and even the way he smiled. He also described the embarrassment of having to explain that this was an unprovoked assault and not the result of being in a fight.

At the end of his victim impact statement, he said:

My smile has been taken away from me.”

Mr Cronin asked Judge Jonathan Dunphy if he could say one more thing after presenting his victim impact statement, and the judge told him to go ahead.

“I have no ill-will towards them. I forgive them. I don’t wish to see them going to prison,” Mr Cronin said.

After a brief adjournment when Judge Dunphy considered all the evidence in the sentencing hearing, he imposed two-year jail terms but suspended them in full.

He specifically referred to the injured party’s comments at the end of his victim impact statement.

“The injured party says they made a mistake and do not deserve to go to prison and have their lives destroyed. I have to commend his attitude. I was very impressed with the very mature way he dealt with it,” the judge said.

Turning to the two defendants, he said that if they “as much as looked in the wrong direction” in another incident, they would be at risk of prison.

Paula McCarthy, barrister on behalf of Kelly-Wilmot, said her client had signed a plea of guilty.

“He is regretful and remorseful and is deemed by the Probation Service to be a low risk of reoffending. He has offered a sincere apology for this totally unprovoked attack," she said.

Barrister Alan O’Dwyer said Thomas had also signed a plead of guilty and co-operated with the investigation.

Mr O’Dwyer said that Thomas had brought €5,300 to court for the injured party. Kelly-Wilmot brought another €5,300. Both defendants are in their 20s.

Mr Cronin’s dental bills alone have run into several thousand euro and are expected to rise.

The two defendants approached the injured party to shake hands with him after the suspended jail terms were imposed at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.