A short-fused ex-phone salesman who punched and kicked a man on a busy nightclub dancefloor has been warned to come up with compensation or face jail time.
Judge Mary Fahy gave the warning at Galway District Court on Monday after hearing how Martin Bance had only managed to come up with €300 of the €6,000 in compensation owed to the man he attacked in the unprovoked assault at GPO nighclub, Eglinton Street, Galway, on December 29, 2009.
The court heard how the 22-year-old with an address at 70 Duirling, Roscam, had pleaded guilty to assault causing harm at a previous court sitting in January this year and that the matter had been adjourned to allow Bance to pay an initial €3,000 of the compensation.
However this week Judge Fahy was informed that Bance had been laid off work last month and has so far managed to only come up with €300. The solicitor added that attempts had been made to acquire loans in order to pay the compensation but these were unsuccessful.
“I’m not accepting that,” replied an unimpressed Judge Fahy who added that the defendant has a previous for assault causing harm.
At the January court sitting it was revealed that gardai had been called to the GPO at 1.55am where they found the defendent in a very intoxicated state and abusive. Bance had been in a row earlier in which he punched the injured party in the face before kicking him a number of times while he lay on the ground.
The court heard that as a result of the unprovoked attack, the injured party received a laceration to the forehead and bruising. The injured party told Judge Fahy that he had been left with a scar above one of his eyes, often suffers pains in the head, had blurred vision, and that some teeth were still loose. He added that he had paid hundreds of euro to doctors and to the hospital for treatment.
In court this week Bance’s solicitor said that his client realises that the injured party had medical expences in the region of €950 but that he was very limited in what he can raise.
Judge Fahy then warned that as Bance has a previous conviction for assault he was now looking at a custodial sentence.
“If he is not coming up with compensation he might as well take his punishment today. €3,000 was the amount required first. He has only come up with €300. I don’t want it in dribs and drabs. I was going to give him a chance, I could have given him a sentence like many of my colleagues would have done. I will give him one more opportunity. He better have €3,000 the next day or I will impose a sentence,” said Judge Fahy who then adjourned the case to May 9 for €3,000 compensation to be paid.
