Father kicked daughter in the face in drunken assault

A FATHER kicked his teenage daughter in the face after she confronted him about his drinking, a court has heard.

And he attacked her again with a punch in the face in front of gardaí when they were called out to deal with the domestic violence incident, Dublin District Court was told.

Gardaí had to use pepper spray to arrest him. The man, who is in his forties, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the 16year-old girl at their north Dublin home on date last year.

He cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, who is a minor.

He also admitted obstructing a garda during the incident. Judge Bryan Smyth remarked that it was a clearly a very serious offence and he adjourned sentencing to ascertain if the girl wanted to give a victimimpact statement.

The man did not give evidence but made a comment about ‘dragging out’ to his barrister when the judge said that he was adjourning the case.

In evidence, Garda Adrian O’Hanlon said that when the girl arrived home on the night of the attack there was an argument with her father over alcohol. She took two cans from the fridge and went to her bedroom. The father followed her to her room where he took the cans back and ‘kicked her in the face, causing her nose and mouth to bleed’.

Gardaí were called and when they were taking a report in the kitchen, the man entered and was ‘very erratic’. ‘After two minutes calming him down he asked to go back to his bedroom to retrieve a T-shirt,’ the garda said, adding that the accused passed by the girl and ‘struck her with a closed fist in the face in front of gardaí’.

He remained violent and it continued outside the house until gardaí had to use an incapacitant spray, the court was told.

Garda O’Hanlon agreed with defence counsel Simon Matthews that alcohol would have been an aggravating factor. The garda said the man had stated that he had gone to a doctor for help.

The man, who has several children, has nine prior criminal convictions for motoring offences. Pleading for leniency, the defence said the ‘highly embarrassed’ man had had a severe alcohol dependency for some time which caused difficulty for his health, and is currently on medication. However, he has sought help for his drink problem, the court heard.

Counsel said that the man ‘freely admits he doesn’t know how many he had’ on the night of the drink-fuelled attack.

The teenage girl was not present for the hearing. The defence had given advance notice of the guilty plea so she was not required to give evidence in court against her father.

The defence barrister said his client still lived in the family home but ‘would not have been surprised if he had not been allowed back in and was thrown out’.

Counsel said the family put up with the defendant, and that this is why he resolved to address his issue. The court heard that this incident had made him turn his back on alcohol.