A twenty-two-year-old man was handed a five-month prison sentence for assaulting another man who had approached him to see if his girlfriend was okay while on a night out in Kilkenny.
Denis Redmond with an address of 12 Woodview, Stradbally, Co Laois pleaded guilty to the offence which occurred on John Street, Kilkenny on December 9, 2007.
Kilkenny District Court heard last week that a man who was making his way home after leaving a fast-food outlet on John Street noticed the defendant who appeared to be assaulting a woman.
Inspector Liam Heffernan told the court that when the man approached them to see if the girl was okay, Redmond turned around and struck him three or four times in the face. The man suffered bleeding, a broken nose and a black eye as a result of the assault.
Solicitor for the defendant Michael Lanigan said that his client had travelled into Kilkenny with his girlfriend and 13 others and had started drinking at 8pm.
He said that both his client and his girlfriend had consumed a lot of alcohol and when approached by the ‘good samaritan’ she was ‘coming in and out of consciousness and he was shaking her because she passed out.’
He said his client recalled being asked by the man if she was okay and then ‘without warning struck him with at least three blows.’ The solicitor also referred to the defendant’s garda statement in which he said he had become paranoid that night.
Mr Lanigan added that his client wished to apologise unreservedly to the man for what happened.
Redmond has two previous convictions, one is for an offence under the Road Traffic Act and the other is for theft.
Judge William Harnett said it was strange that the girl didn’t fall to the ground and crack her head open while Redmond ‘acted the thug.’ Judge Harnett branded his actions as ‘an act of thuggery and bullying’ and said that ‘he had vented his frustration on someone else’ before sentencing him to five months in prison.
