Student who attacked lesbian couple gets a suspended sentence
A STUDENT who assaulted a gay couple and threw homophobic slurs at them during a row he was having with his girlfriend has been given a fully suspended sentence.
Charlie Lawlor, 21, of St Patrick’s Terrace, Monkstown Farm, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to one of the women, and to assaulting her partner during the incident, which happened on August 11, 2022.
Prior to the attack, Lawlor and his girlfriend had been chatting with the couple in a local pub, having just met them that night.
In a joint victim impact statement read out in court by the investigating officer, the women said they were left ‘emotionally scarred’ as a result of the actions of a ‘homophobic man under the influence of alcohol’.
One of the women required surgery and was left with a scar to the face, the court heard. The women said that while this scar was a ‘permanent reminder and testament of the brutality we endured that night’, their injuries went beyond the physical.
‘Our lives have been irrevocably changed by this heinous act,’ they said, adding that they were attempting to rebuild their ‘shattered sense of security’.
Sentencing Lawlor yesterday, Judge Martin Nolan said he should be ‘thoroughly ashamed’. ‘He lost control and attacked this unfortunate couple and he was abusive while attacking them. He was very disrespectful and very insulting in the remarks he made,’ said Judge Nolan.
The court heard that Lawlor has made €7,000 available in compensation to the more seriously injured woman.
Judge Nolan ordered him to pay a further €7,000 to this woman and to hand another €1,000 to the other woman within the next nine months. If the women do not wish to accept this compensation, it is to be offered to a local charity.
Lawlor was handed a sentence of two and a half years, which was suspended in full, on condition that he keep the peace for this period. ‘You understand that you should be ashamed of yourself?’ the judge asked Lawlor, to which he replied: ‘Absolutely.’
A detective garda told prosecuting barrister John Gallagher, that on the night in question, Lawlor and his girlfriend got chatting to the couple in the Lighthouse pub in Dún Laoghaire. At one stage, Lawlor and his girlfriend started arguing and she slapped him in the face, the court heard. They were asked to leave the pub and were arguing outside when the two women approached and tried to intervene. Lawlor then threw a number of homophobic slurs at the women, including ‘f*** the gays’ and ‘dirty gays’.
When one of the women tried to calm things down, he punched her in the face, causing her to fall. She suffered significant injuries as a result, with a laceration to the face that required plastic surgery and numerous stitches inside her mouth. Her partner suffered bruising to her face.
Lawlor was arrested after he was identified from CCTV and the injured parties’ description of him. Defending barrister Olan Callanan said Lawlor was a ‘decent young man’ with no previous convictions. However, he urged Judge Nolan not to jail Lawlor, citing his youth, good character and expressions of remorse. Lawlor is studying a PLC course with plans to go on to university and works as a cinema attendant, the court heard.
‘Once someone does something wrong, all they can do is try and face it,’ defence counsel said. ‘He has done everything that can be done to face it.’
‘He lost control’