Father of five jailed for assault on man who later died

A Kildare father-of-five who admitted assaulting a “popular, gentle” man who later died has been jailed for 2½ years.

Construction worker Paul Gill (37) of Sarto Road, Naas, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting the deceased Patrick "Patsy" Kelly (58) and his former neighbour, Martin Curtis, on August 22nd, 2015.

He had pleaded not guilty to unlawfully killing Mr Kelly during the same incident and was acquitted of manslaughter after a six-day trial last month.

The jury in the trial heard evidence that the row was over late-night drinking and noise at Mr Curtis’s home on Sarto Road.

Eye-witnesses described seeing Gill confront the deceased outside Mr Curtis’s house that night and punch him in the face. Gill then dragged Mr Kelly up to 8 metres from Mr Curtis’s front door to the road and kicked him once in the head.

Gill then attacked Mr Curtis when he arrived on the scene, Detective Garda Enda Coleman told Orla Crowe SC, prosecuting, during the sentence hearing last week.

CPR administered

Emergency services arrived and administered continuous CPR to Mr Kelly, but he died. Postmortem evidence in the trial revealed Mr Kelly died from heart disease and that the minor trauma from the assault was a contributing factor.

On Monday, Judge Melanie Greally noted Mr Kelly was a popular man who was greatly loved and the circumstances of his death had been extremely distressing to his family.

She said the aggravating factors of the case included the fact that Mr Kelly, who was vulnerable and intoxicated, had been taken by surprise by the assault and was totally incapable of defending himself. She noted he had been kicked in the head while on the ground.

In mitigation, the judge said Gill had entered a guilty plea, made admissions and expressed remorse.

She said Gill had a difficult upbringing but now had a stable and supportive marriage and a young family.

She noted the effects of his bail conditions had a punitive effect on his life. One of the conditions of his bail was that he had to stay out of Kildare, apart from weekends when he could visit his family within their home.

Heart condition

Judge Greally said she accepted Gill could not have known of Mr Kelly’s heart condition.

She noted the maximum sentence for this offence was five years. Taking all the circumstances into account she imposed a 2½-year sentence on Gill in relation to the assault on Mr Kelly and took the assault on Mr Curtis into account.

At last week’s hearing, Det Gda Coleman agreed with Séamus Clarke SC, defending, that Gill was visibly upset in interview after arrest.

He agreed Gill had vague recollection of what had happened because he’d been drinking, but he had answered all questions and admitted the assaults.

In her victim impact statement, Mr Kelly’s sister said her family have been left with deep psychological scars.

Gill’s uncle by marriage, Michael Kelly, gave evidence as part of the defence plea of mitigation. He described how Gill’s father died from cancer when he was nine years old.

He said Gill’s mother had severe mental health problems and the house fell into an “awful bad state of disrepair” after the father’s death.

Mr Kelly said he and his wife provided meals and toiletries to Gill and his brother, who then died tragically in his teens. He said Gill is a hard worker as fisherman and concrete finisher and didn’t rely on State services during the recession.