FOUR YEAR PRISON SENTENCE FOR ASSAULTING ARAN ISLAND SERGEANT

Date Published: 20-Feb-2008

A 29 year old Aran Islander was sentenced to four years in prison yesterday for a sustained and vicious attack on the island’s only Garda Sergeant Galway Circuit Criminal Court heard that Sean McDonagh, from Cill Einne Road, Inis Mór, head butted, kicked and punched Sergeant Christy Joyce in the early hours of December 28, 2006.McDonagh pleaded guilty to a single charge of assaulting the sergeant, causing him harm.Sergeant Seamus Philips told the court that McDonagh head butted Sgt. Joyce on several occasions outside Joe Watty's pub in Kilronan.Then, as Sgt. Joyce tried to run, McDonagh held him by the throat while trying to push him over a wall, behind which there was a steep incline. The sergeant managed to get away from him again but McDonagh caught up with him and was punching and kicking him when a local man intervened.Sgt. Joyce again escaped and was trying to run back to Joe Watty’s pub for help when McDonagh caught up with him and began assaulting him again. He told the sergeant he was going to kill him. Passing sentence, Judge Raymond Groarke said McDonagh had taken advantage of the fact that the sergeant was alone and vulnerable that night on the island. He told McDonagh this had been a very vicious and sustained attack and sentenced him to four years in prison.