A man who viciously assaulted a public health nurse while she was visiting his three-month-old son has been sentenced to 40 months in jail.
John Cash, who had consumed alcohol and mephedrone, a cocaine substitute, got into a paranoid state and believed his son was being taken away from him.
Nurse Marie Duignam told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court she had been diagnosed with post- traumatic stress disorder and had been deemed not medically fit to return to work. After the unprovoked attack, she thought her “brains would be left on the floor”. She could not see herself working at community nursing any more “due to this man’s actions”.
Cash (35), Parnell Road, Dublin, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm on December 21st, 2010. In a letter of apology to Ms Duignam, Cash, who has 46 previous convictions, said she was “nothing but kind to me and I thought my son was being taken. When I sobered up I realised I was just imagining this and I apologise.”
Judge Martin Nolan said the incident was “a vicious assault and merciless attack on a defenceless woman who was doing her job”.