BRAY MAN JAILED FOR UNPROVOKED ONE-PUNCH ASSAULT

VICTIM SUFFERS SEIZURES AND HEARING LOSS DUE TO UNPROVOKED ATTACK

A Bray man was handed a four-and-a-halfyear sentence at Wicklow Circuit Court last week following a one-punch attack that left his victim with life-changing injuries.

The attack occurred in the James Everett Park area in the early hours of January 15, 2017.

Mark O’Sullivan (29), admitted assault causing serious harm to David Kirwan of Rowan Grove, a man of a similar age.

Detective Garda Glenn Quinn told the court that O’Sullivan had cooperated with the gardaí and gave a full account of what occurred.

State prosecutor James Kelly said that the defendant and his wife had been out that day and had been to a number of pubs and a restaurant in the Bray area. His wife’s grandfather was also in their company.

Detective Garda Quinn said that O’Sullivan saw Mr Kirwan earlier in a pub but had no interaction with him.

They went home and there was some disagreement about whether to go out again, resulting in them ‘whingeing at each other’, the court heard.

O’Sullivan did go out again and bumped into Mr Kirwan.

‘He said something and I hit him,’ O’Sullivan told gardaí in interview. ‘He fell to the ground. There was blood coming from everywhere. I rang an ambulance and put a coat over him.’

Gardaí believe it is likely that Mr Kir- wan hit his head on the ground after he was struck.

The defendant told gardaí at the scene that he had hit Mr Kirwan. He rang St Vincent’s Hospital the following morning to ask about Mr Kirwan’s condition and was told that he had been moved to Beaumont.

O’Sullivan told gardaí that when he saw the blood, ‘I was like, what the f **k have I done’.

The court heard that Mr Kirwan’s memory has been affected by his head injury. He was in an induced coma for a number of weeks following the blow. He is in rehabilitation for language therapy and declined to come to court.

In a victim impact statement read out by Mr Kelly, the court heard that Mr Kirwan suffers seizures and lost the hearing in his left ear. He said that he was very happy and outgoing prior to the incident but his life has completely changed.

‘I don’t go outside very often and my confidence is gone,’ he said in his statement. He thanked the gardaí and medical team for their assistance during his ordeal.

‘It was an unprovoked attack,’ he wrote. ‘I was listening to music on headphones when I was hit on the head from behind.’

Barrister Michael O’Higgins said that his client had clearly done something wrong, ‘regrettably the sort of wrong for which you can’t turn the clock back.’

Garda Quinn agreed that O’Sullivan had made a very genuine effort to assist Mr Kirwan at the scene and that he seems to be particularly remorseful. He was noted to be very distressed on the night, and saying ‘sorry, sorry, please wake up’.

He repeatedly asked if Mr Kirwan would be OK. And at the scene, he said ‘I hit him one punch, is he OK? I’m not a scumbag.’

O’Sullivan has no previous convictions and is considered to be at a low risk of reoffending.

O’Sullivan’s wife Lisa took the stand to speak on her husband’s behalf. She said that she has known him since she was about 12 years old.

‘He was always a quiet chap who would never get in any trouble,’ she said.

She said that he is hard-working and has always had a job and added that he helps out at the local community centre.

‘He hasn’t been able to sleep,’ she said. ‘He’s always saying sorry because he knows he’s going to leave me and the kids.’

She said that her husband has always been a gentle, hard-working, dedicated family man. He was stabbed when he was 18, she said. What he did has brought back how he felt when attacked himself.

In a letter of apology to the victim, Mr O’Sullivan said that there hasn’t been a minute since that night that he hasn’t regretted what he did.

‘I take full responsibility and face whatever consequences come with that,’ he wrote in the letter, which Mr O’Higgins read to the court.

‘I really am so sorry for hitting you, it should never have happened,’ he said.

Mr O’Higgins said that there is no real explanation regarding how or why it occurred as his client’s memory is blurred by alcohol.

Judge Michael O’Shea said that there was no doubt that the excessive amount of alcohol consumed had a substantial degree of influence.

He said that the victim’s difficulties since then are catastrophic and a direct result of the one-punch attack.

Judge O’Shea sentenced O’Sullivan to seven years in prison, with two-and-a-half years suspended