A YOUNG man who beat a woman to the ground in front of her young children has been sentenced to two years in prison with the final year suspended.
Jason Nolan (21), Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin, admitted he punched Fiona Taylor three times when she threatened to call gardaí over his car’s involvement in an earlier hit-and-run with her vehicle.
Ms Taylor had been on her way to drop her two children at school when she recognised a passing car as one which crashed into hers two weeks previously.
Det Garda Ciarán McGrath told Noel Devitt, prosecuting, that Ms Taylor followed the car to Rossfield Avenue, Tallaght, and confronted the driver about the hit-and-run.
Nolan claimed he had just bought the car and punched Ms Taylor as she was phoning gardaí.
Det Garda McGrath said Nolan then grabbed Ms Taylor’s phone, smashed it and came towards her in an aggressive manner.
Nolan pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm at Rossfield Avenue on April 2nd, 2008. He has 20 previous convictions including two for assault.
Det Garda McGrath said Ms Taylor could only recall promising Nolan that she would not call the authorities, before gardaí arrived on the scene and she was taken to hospital with a bleeding nose and ear.
Nolan admitted assaulting the young woman but denied he had known about the hit-and-run with her car.
He told gardaí he punched her three times, before walking away and leaving her on the ground in front of her two children, who were aged nine and 10 years.
Judge Katherine Delahunt accepted Nolan’s genuine remorse for the incident and told him he was lucky his victim had not suffered serious injuries from the attack.
The judge accepted that Nolan had emotional problems, had family difficulties at the time of the offence and ordered that he undergo anger-management treatment in custody.