Teen pleads guilty to assault causing serious harm to Longford father

A teenager has pleaded guilty to the section 4 assault causing serious harm to a Longford father in Mullingar before Christmas.

The 17-year-old male appeared at a sitting of Mullingar Circuit Court on Thursday morning (July 10) where Desmond Dockery SC said he was pleading guilty on the basis that the injuries caused to the victim were inflicted “recklessly” and not intentionally.

The alleged assault took place on December 14, 2024, at approximately 1am on Grove Street, Mullingar. The injured party, a man in his 30s, was discovered with serious injuries at 1.10am and removed by ambulance to Midlands Regional Hospital Mullingar.

At 6am that same morning, he was transported to Beaumont Hospital in critical condition, with a severe bleed to his brain.

At a bail hearing before the District Court in December, Detective Garda Brendan Hogan said the injured party was out socialising with colleagues on the night in question when he came upon a group of local youths and an altercation ensued.

CCTV footage, he said, shows the males meeting in the street, before the injured party, the accused and a third party go off-screen for a period of just eight seconds. It’s within that eight-second window that the assault took place.

The accused presented himself at Mullingar Garda Station and made a voluntary caution statement on the afternoon of December 14.

He and another 17-year-old male were arrested a few days later and questioned in relation to the incident. The other male, who was released without charge, identified the accused on CCTV footage and gave Gardaí an account of what had happened, stating that the accused had punched the man.

A large number of phones was seized during the course of the investigation and messages recovered, including two voice notes sent via Snapchat.

“I’m after clocking a fella and he wouldn’t wake up for half an hour,” said the accused in one message sent on Snapchat at 1:48am in the aftermath of the incident. He finished off the message by stating he was “pure paro” or paranoid.

In the second message, sent to another person on Snapchat at 11.20am on December 14, he stated “I’m not sure if I killed the fella or not, but even if I didn’t kill him, it’s bad bro.”

After making his voluntary statement at the Garda station, the court heard the accused immediately sent a message into a Snapchat group stating “make sure that whatever you do or say, all I said was I’ve no idea who knocked who out. Too much drink”.

He was granted bail by Judge Bernadette Owens who said “detention is a last resort” for a juvenile.

Bail conditions imposed included a €500 independent surety from the teen’s mother, and that he surrender his passport and not apply for a duplicate. He was also to abide by a curfew from 7pm to 6am, remain intoxicant-free and sign on at Mullingar Garda Station every Wednesday and Saturday.

Mr Dockery, on behalf of the accused, requested a probation report and stated that the next sittings of Mullingar Circuit Court would not take place until the end of November – after his client’s 18th birthday.

Also read: RIP: ‘Gentleman’- Irish doctor dies on holiday in France as wife and son heart broken

For that reason, he requested the sentence hearing take place at a different court before then. Judge Kenneth Connolly agreed to list the case for October 30 in Portlaoise, to be dealt with “before he ages out”.

There was no objection to continuing bail and Judge Connolly directed the probation report to include a suitability assessment for community service and for the Restorative Justice Programme.

A victim impact statement is also to be prepared by the victim’s family for that date.

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW

Source