This article is from page 19 of the 2010-02-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
A MAN had his eyes gouged and ear bitten in an unprovoked, frenzied at- tack in a housing estate in Shannon, a court heard yesterday.
Arising out of the incident, two young men who pleaded guilty to violent disorder were jailed.
Mark Hayes (21), of Aidan Park, Shannon; Philip Bridges (19), Feen- agh Cross, Sixmilebridge; and Do- minic Hayes (19), of Inis Ealga, Shannon, pleaded guilty arising out of an incident at Rossbracken, Shan- non, on November 14, 2008.
Sergeant Michael O’Connell told Ennis Circuit Court that gardai in Shannon received a call about an in- cident outside a house at 10.30pm on the date 1n question.
He said on arrival there, gardai no- ticed a man was covered in blood. He had sustained cuts to the face, ear and over his eyes and was in severe pain. Another man also had injuries.
A witness told gardai that the vic- tim was assaulted “in a frenzied ner Opelso mae
Sgt O’Connell said the victim was with two others and was on his way home to watch DVDs when he was set upon in what he described as a “totally unprovoked attack on an honourable decent man”.
He said the victim was afraid to go to court to give evidence.
The victim had his eyes gouged and sustained a human bite to his left ear. He suffered multiple injuries to his face and required hospital treatment for some time after the attack.
Sgt O’Connell described Dominic Hayes as the “main aggressor” and said he had put his hands in the vic- tim’s eyes. However, he said the other two defendants were also involved.
The victim has since made a physt- cal recovery, but mentally he was still suffering. His victim impact state- ment was read out to court, in which he said he had always felt safe in his home town Shannon but since the “vicious, violent, savage attack” his confidence had been severely dented. He said it scared him to think what would have happened had the gardai not been called as “they were not go- ing to stop hitting me”.
“That night will forever be etched in my mind,” he stated.
Lorcan Connolly, BL, for Dominic Hayes, said it would be unfair to single out his client as the key player in the at- tack. However, Sgt O’Connell said he was going on the evidence of the wit- nesses who were there at the time.
Mark Nicholas, for Bridges, said al- cohol was a major problem in this in- cident and said his client owned up at an early stage. Pat Whyms, for Mark Hayes, said, “A lot of the evidence places him at the scene but doesn’t do much more than that.”
Judge Carroll Moran jailed Mark Hayes for two years, stating, “He has a bad record of assault.” He noted that he was not the instigator of the incident. He jailed Dominic Hayes for three years, one of which he sus- pended. He adjourned the case of Philip Bridges.