Prison for man who 'glassed' reveller
A 30-year-old city man has been sentenced to four years in prison with the final two years suspended, for smashing a glass into another man’s face which has left him with permanent eye damage.
David O'Reilly, Ballinfoyle Park, was convicted by a jury last November following a three-day trial.
He had denied assaulting Alan Rossborough (28) at Forster Street, Galway on January 1, 2011, causing him harm.
The jury heard evidence at the time that Rossborough and his wife had been ringing in the New Year with friends in Coyote's, which was then situated in Forster Street when there was an altercation between him and O’Reilly.
Out on the street at the end of the night, O'Reilly "glassed" Rossborough around his right eye and he was also hit into the same eye with a full can of beer by another man who had jumped out of a car seconds earlier.
Rossborough had to undergo surgery to have a glass lens fitted in his eye and he told the jury he continued to be adversely affected by glare and bright lights.
Following the jury’s unanimous guilty verdict in November, Judge Rory McCabe remanded O’Reilly in custody for a month and directed a probation report on the accused be made available to the court prior to sentence on December 17.
The probation officer involved in the case looked for a further adjournment in December to finalise assessment of the accused and O’Reilly was released on bail to appear before the court again on February 26 for finalisation of sentence.
However, it emerged in court on that date that O’Reilly had not engaged with the probation service properly and he was taken into custody.
A positive probation was handed into court last week.
Garda Martin Costello who had carried out the initial investigation said there had been threats and intimidation between the parties involved going back to their childhood.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Rossborough stated that long after O’Reilly had served his sentence, he would still be left with the injury for the rest of his life. He said it was a struggle every day to focus and he worried about the future.
Mr Browne said his client had brought €5,000 to court for the victim as a token gesture of his remorse.
Judge Rory McCabe said there was no element of provocation in the evidence given at the trial.
Sentencing O’Reilly, he said the victim had suffered a serious eye injury and had been left permanently impaired.