A man who assualted his neighbour out of the blue in a drunken unprovoked attack was ordered to pay €750 in compensation at Galway District Court on Monday.
The court heard that Michael Ward, who drunkenly waltzed up to a house in the early hours of the morning, started banging on the door, and when it was answered violently slapped his neighbour in the face, paid €200 of the compensation in court this week but he will now have to come up with a further €550 in order to receive a four-month suspended sentence.
Ward (43 ) with an address at 237 Tirellan Heights, Headford Road, appeared before Judge Mary Fahy and pleaded guilty to assaulting Ibar Shnek at Tirellan Heights on October 19, 2009. A charge of threatening and abusive behaviour was withdrawn.
Inspector Ernie White told the court that at 6.10am the injured party was in his house when the defendant and another man came and started knocking on the door. When Mr Shnek answered, the defendant, who was very drunk, suddenly “slapped him” in the face.
Defence solicitor Olivia Traynor explained that her client and the injured party had lived across the road from one another but that Mr Shnek has since moved. She added that Ward was arrested 45 minutes later and made a full admission.
The court then heard that Ward has previous convictions for public order offences for which he was fined in March of this year. A fine was also imposed in January 2010 for bringing an object on to land, and there is a conviction for being intoxicated in 2009.
Ms Traynor further explained that on the night in question Ward’s daughter had just got married and he had “consumed a ridiculous amount of alcohol”. She added that there had been “no background” between her client and the injured party.
Through an interpreter Mr Shnek then said that the events “didn’t happen quite like that”. “He [defendant] punched me in the throat,” he said.
“Have you any excuse for knocking on this man’s door at 6am?” Judge Fahy asked. to which the defendant replied that it was “completely out of order”. He then said that he has since given up alcohol and had brought €200 into court to hand over as compensation.
Judge Fahy then said that she would consider dealing with the matter on a suspended sentence basis if more compensation is paid. The case was then adjourned until March 7 for an additional €550 to be paid and if this is done then a four-month suspended sentence will be applied.
