This article is from page 14 of the 2008-10-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
AN UNPROVOKED attack which the left the victim with a scar re- sulted in a criminal conviction for a Shannon man.
The Circuit Court heard that Chris- topher McGorrian (18) Rossbarack- en, Shannon struck Martin O’Leary in the face on April 21 2007, splitting his lip before running off laughing.
O’Leary told Stephan Coughlan BL for the prosecution that he he was standing talking to friends at Cronin Lawn on the night.
McGorrian came out of a house across the road and was “walking in circles. He was very agitated.”, O’Leary said.7
McGorrian walked over to O’ Leary and struck him in the face.
“The cut went right through to the inside of my lip and I had to have seven stitches to the outside and sev- en to the inside’, he told Judge Ger- ard Griffin in evidence.
The injured man was referred to a
plastic surgeon in Cork University Hospital and the surgeons report was read into the court record. It said that O’Leary would be left with a 2cm permanent scar which would be vis- ible at conversational distance.
McGorrian had pleaded not guilty to a charge of causing serious harm and disfigurement but guilty to a lesser charge of causing harm.
Summing up for the jury, Mr Coughlan said the fact was that the scar is permanent and this constitut- ed disfigurement.
Mr Mark Nicholas for the defence told the jury it was “nonsense” to de- fine “a scar which I couldn’t see and you couldn’t see as serious disfigure- ment. My client’s behaviour was dis- graceful and he has apologised to Mr O’Leary. It’s a bad injury but it’s not serious disfigurement.”
The jury returned a verdict of non guilty on the more serious charge and guilty on the lesser charge.
The Judge adjourned sentencing until Wednesday October 29.