A heavily pregnant woman was left extremely distressed when a can of cider burst and sprayed all over her before a man in an agitated state followed her into a shop, the Galway District Court heard.
Dara Waters (46 ), with an address given as Fairgreen Hostel, received a four month suspended sentence on Monday after pleading guilty to assaulting the woman at Shop Street on December 30, 2009.
Inspector Mick Coppinger told the court that the injured party had been entering Flanagan’s pharmacy in Shop Street at around 5pm when a can of cider thrown in her vicinity hit the ground, burst, and sprayed on top of her. The woman, who was eight months pregnant at the time, became extremely afraid as the defendant then followed her into the pharmacy and proceeded to hurl abuse at her. The inspector added that the woman became increasingly distressed because of her condition and because “she thought she was going to be struck”.
Regarding the charge itself, Inspector Coppinger explained, “It was a technical assault”. He then told the court that Waters had accumulated 46 previous convictions, mostly for public order offences. The court later heard that Waters has a previous conviction, dating back two years ago, for assault.
Defence solicitor Olivia Traynor stressed that the gardai have accepted that her client did not throw the can of cider “deliberately”. She said that Waters, who has no recollection of the incident, had had a lot of alcohol consumed and had dropped the can. Ms Traynor further explained that Waters had approached the woman to try to explain the situation but that because he tends to get very excited and agitated, he “came across the wrong way”.
After hearing the evidence Judge Fahy said that at 5pm on December 30 it would have been quite dark and a woman who is eight months pregnant would have found the situation “worrying”. She then accepted that it was “unintentional” but that people are entitled to go about their business without encountering the defendant’s erratic behaviour.
Judge Fahy then convicted Waters and imposed a four month sentence suspended for 12 months on his own bond of €200.
