A Spiddal teenager who asked an unsuspecting stranger for a cigarette and after hearing a foreign accent, viciously assaulted him was given an extra five months detention to serve when he appeared at Galway District Court on Monday.
Nineteen-year-old Kevin Keady, with an address given as Poll, Spiddal, pleaded guilty to assaulting Damian Wisniewski causing him harm at the Promenade, Salthill, on August 30, 2009. A second charge of assault causing harm was withdrawn by the state.
Inspector Pat McHugh told the court that at 3.10am Wisniewski had been walking home with others after a night out when Keady, who was on the opposite side of the road, shouted across at them for a cigarette. Wisniewski then asked his friends for a cigarette and came over to Keady to give it to him. Keady then asked Wisniewski where he was from, but when Keady heard the accent and was unable to understand the response he lashed out. Keady punched the injured party a number of times, hitting him in the face, tearing off his shirt, and knocking him to the ground. The injured party’s brother-in-law came to help but was also beaten up and kicked to the ground. The court heard that Wisniewski did not need medical attention but that there were visible marks.
Defence solicitor Sarah O’Dowd said that Keady had consumed a lot of alcohol on this occasion. The court heard that Keady is currently serving nine months for unrelated assault charges and has received a suspended sentence for another matter.
“I’m very disappointed to hear that a young Irish man from Spiddal, an area where people had to leave to find work elsewhere, would assault a person because he is from another country. He [the injured party] went over to him with the bother to give the defendant a cigarette,” said Judge Mary Fahy.
Ms O’Dowd replied that Keady maintains that he does not have a problem with anyone because of their nationality. She said that it is “anger in general” that Keady has a problem with and that he is seeking help.
“He [Keady] asked for a cigarette, the injured party gave him one, and that’s the thanks he got. He got assaulted,” said Judge Fahy, who added that these types of assaults were “needless, unnecessary and totally unprovoked”.
Judge Fahy then imposed five months detention to be served on lawful termination of the sentence already being served.
