Date set for challenge to 'undue leniency' of sentence for ex-soldier who attacked Natasha O’Brien

Cathal Crotty had grabbed Natasha O’Brien by her hair and punched her to the ground after she asked him to stop shouting a homophobic slur at passersby

Cathal Crotty received a three-year suspended sentence at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court last June and was ordered to pay €3,000 in compensation after he pleaded guilty to carrying out the unprovoked attack. File picture

A date has been fixed for the State's appeal against the "undue leniency" of the fully suspended sentence handed down to a former soldier who beat a woman unconscious on a Limerick street and later boasted about it on social media.

Cathal Crotty (aged 22), from Parkroe Heights, Ardnacrusha, Co Clare, received a three-year suspended sentence at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court last June and was ordered to pay €3,000 in compensation after he pleaded guilty to carrying out an unprovoked attack on Natasha O’Brien on O’Connell Street in Limerick in May, 2022.