No jail for student who broke girl’s jaw
A STUDENT with four previous convictions for assaults and public order offences broke a teenage girl’s jaw in a one-punch assault, but he has been given a suspended sentence.
Seán Flood, 24, pushed Leah Fay to the ground and when she got up he punched her in the face, breaking her jaw in two places so that she had to have steel plates inserted.
Ms Fay, then 18, became upset in court when reading from her victim impact statement, revealing how her jaw is now painful when cold and feels like a constant toothache. She is receiving ongoing treatment and told Judge Gerard Griffin, in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, that she did not know how much this will end up costing.
She also became withdrawn and depressed and her social life is affected because she feels anxious and nervous going out. She had been trying to intervene between Flood and a male friend to stop her friend getting hit at the time.
The assault took place on D’Olier Street, Dublin city centre, on the night of May 16, 2015, in the midst of a ‘rolling fight’ following an earlier match between soccer clubs Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians.
Flood of Rathmines Close, Rathmines, Dublin, pleaded guilty to the assault of Ms Fay causing her harm.
Yesterday, Judge Griffin noted her serious injuries and said he would have imposed three and a half years but Flood had undergone ‘significant rehabilitation’. He handed down two and a half years and suspended it on a number of conditions.
Defence counsel Anne Marie Lawlor SC said that Flood had recently been released from prison for previous offending and had not been drinking for a while.