A member of the former British boy-band Five was ordered to pay IR£5,000 to a children's hospital today after appearing in a Dublin District Court after a punch-up in a pub.
Jason Brown, 25, was given the benefit of the Probation Act by the court, effectively meaning that the charges against him were dismissed.
Brown agreed to pay the IR£5,000 to a fund in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin for the babies of drug addicts. He was also told to pay witnesses' expenses of IR£700.
He said he was genuinely sorry for punching a customer in Dublin's Palace Bar last December after an exchange about the merits of his band and the boy band Westlife.
A second member of 5ive, Richard Dobson, was also charged in connection with the incident and paid IR£3,000 into the court poor box last March after admitting the charges of being drunk and disorderly and using threatening language.
On that occasion, Brown failed to turn up, explaining later that he had been unable to attend because his mother had been ill in America.
District Court Judge Mr Gerard Haughton said there was overwhelming evidence that Brown had been the aggressor at all stages in the bar and that the man he struck, Fionnán Gallagher, who received a black eye, had done nothing to provoke the attack.
But the judge also said that Brown and his band had just completed a world tour, had not slept the previous night, and had been drinking.
It was unfortunate, though, that someone who was a role model for teenagers should behave in that fashion.
After the court appearance, Brown said: "Of course, I'm sorry - I whacked him."