Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Thug who battered tot to watch the X Factor in peace is jailed for 13 years
Man punched little girl for crying during TV show
A THUG who punched a baby girl claiming he wanted to watch the X Factor in peace was jailed for 13-and-a-half years yesterday. A judge branded Darren Eamon Fagan’s earlier version of how the tot suffered the horrific brain injuries – blaming the mother – as “cowardly, vindictive and shameful”. The 29-year-old pleaded guilty to a single charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to the girl, who just two years and four months old, in October 2014. A charge of attempted murder was left on the books. During the sentencing hearing, Belfast Crown Court was told Fagan had a previous conviction for assaulting another tot. Fagan was also handed an extended custodial sentence of three years “for the protection of the public”. The Probation Service has assessed him as posing a danger to society and a “significant risk of causing serious harm in the future” following the attack on the crying child in her cot. Judge Geoffrey Miller told Fagan he would have to serve half of his sentence in prison before the Parole Commissioners would decide whether it was safe to release him back into the community. If he was assessed as being safe to be freed from custody at that point, he will spend a further nine years and three months on supervised licence with the Probation Service. Belfast Crown Court heard the impact of the attack on the child had been “life-changing” and her future prognosis is yet to be fully determined by doctors. A recent medical report said the girl had “difficulties with right upper limb, she is not independently mobile, she requires assistance for walking, reaches most things with her left hand to put them in her right hand”. She has also “speech and language difficulties, attention and concentration difficulties, and receives physical and occupational therapy”. Prosecution lawyer Ciaran Murphy told the court the girl’s mother was separated from her father and was in a relationship with Fagan at the time of the assault The tot had spent part of the weekend with her grandparents and also her father who had all reported she was in good health. The court heard Fagan had stayed overnight at the woman’s house in Bessbrook, Co Armagh, and “started drinking cider from 1.30pm” on Sunday, October 19. The mother told police the girl’s father had dropped her home that evening and she was “in good form” but had then become unsettled when she was put to bed, describing her face as “red and sweating” when she went to check on her.
LIFELESS
After going to the kitchen to look for ibuprofen child medicine, she said she noticed Fagan was no longer in the living room and it was as she went upstairs her daughter “stopped crying” and she heard a “sudden noise... like a thud”. The court heard when the woman went upstairs she noticed the gate to her daughter’s bedroom was open and the light was on. Mr Murphy said: “The defendant was standing crouched over the child’s cot. “He moved away and the mother noticed the child was not moving and she had a large lump to the left side of her head just above the eye and there was an indentation beneath the lump.” The lawyer added the mother “went instinctively to grab her daughter and shouted at him, ‘Oh my God you’ve hit her’, and the defendant replied, ‘No, it’s not what it looks like’. Mr Murphy said: “She ran with her daughter down the stairs towards the front door but the defendant would not let her out saying, ‘I can explain’.” He told the court the mother managed to get out the front door, pushed past Fagan, and ran up the street to a house where a relative lived. Mr Murphy added: “The child was violently vomiting at this stage. “She told people at the house to ring for an ambulance. Police arrived on the scene and the child was put on a stretcher.’’ The “lifeless” baby was brought into the house where an officer performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her before she was transferred by ambulance to Daisy Hill Hospital in
Newry.police at the scene asked what had happened and a relative of the girl told them: “That b ***** d was punching her.’’ When officers eventually caught up with Fagan, he told them: “I am the one you are looking for.” He was formally arrested, cautioned, and replied: “Wha? [sic] I did not do anything.” Fagan was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car to be taken away for questioning. However, Mr Murphy said on the way to Banbridge police station, Fagan started to become “agitated and violent and started headbutting the inside window of the car”. He added: “Police stopped the car and had to put restraints on his thighs and calves and the handcuffs were put around his back.’’ A paediatrician who examined the baby at Daisy Hill Hospital said she had a “large bulge to the left side of her head and had sustained an acute subdural haemorrhage [bleeding on the brain].” The tot was transferred to the children’s unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast and an MRI scan revealed she had suffered “multiple fractures” to the head. The court heard doctors said the child would require “intervention and support in the future” and there was also a “significant risk of developing epilepsy”. Mr Murphy added Fegan was interviewed extensively by police and claimed the girl had been screaming and the mother had fallen down the stairs while carrying her, with the child hitting her head off the wall.
CONVICTIONS
He said the defendant “mendaciously” alleged the woman had been “drinking and taking drugs”. Mr Murphy said that was not the case and in fact the woman was pregnant at the time. The court heard Fagan told a probation officer he “punched the child to her head as she would not stop crying’’, claiming he wanted peace to sit with the mother and watch X Factor on television. Mr Murphy said it is clear the defendant, formerly of Clonavon Avenue in Portadown, Co Armagh, “assaulted the child with extreme force”. Judge Miller was told Fagan had an “extensive criminal record” of 58 convictions, including 10 counts of assault and two of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. One of the offences was for assaulting the 20-month-old child of a previous partner. Fagan’s lawyer Ciaran Mallon described the attack in Bessbrook as an “explosive incident” during which the defendant had lost self-control, telling the court there was “no premeditation” by his client. He said the defendant had an “absolutely wretched childhood and upbringing”. The judge was told Fagan was forced into taking heroin by his mother at a young age and on the night in question had taken a “cocktail of drink and drugs”. Mr Mallon said his client had expressed his remorse for the attack. Passing a 13-and-a-half year determinate sentence, Judge Miller said: “This will have life-long consequences for the child and family members for which this defendant must bear sole responsibility.’’