A SECURITY man who punched his former partner twice in the face with a sharp object has been jailed for eight years.
Fergal McNulty (42) came up behind the victim as she was walking her eight-year-old son to school and punched her twice, cutting her from ear to nose.
In a victim impact report read out in court, Una Webb said the severe scarring resulting from the assault is a daily reminder of her attacker. The mother of one said she was not a vain person but she felt the scar had destroyed her face.
She said some days she cannot leave her home and she never walks her son to school anymore. She said the attack has affected her ability to raise her son.
Garda Shimlagh Martin told Garret Baker, prosecuting, McNulty has seven previous convictions, including theft, forgery and two for common assault.
McNulty, of Whitworth Road, Drumcondra and Cois Cualann, Ballybrack, and formerly of Collooney, Co Sligo, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm and assault causing serious harm to Ms Webb on St Anne’s Road, Drumcondra, on September 3rd, 2009.
After two days of evidence, the jury of six men and six women took three hours to return majority verdicts of guilty on both charges.
During the trial Ms Webb, who is in her thirties, sobbed and struggled to speak as she described the attack. She said she was walking her son to a school near their home when she felt a presence behind her. She turned and looked over her shoulder and recognised McNulty. Within seconds she felt blows to her face.
She was afraid her attacker would hurt her son and she ran away dragging the boy with her.
McNulty was arrested later that day. During the trial, two alibi witnesses said they saw him at a house at least five miles from the assault at the time it took place.
His current partner, Michelle Jenkins, and her aunt, Jane Kane, said he was at Ms Kane’s home in Ballybrack that morning.
Ms Webb was left with a 15cm permanent scar and the attack had shattered two of her teeth.
Patrick Dwyer SC, defending, said McNulty had moved to Dublin in 1993 and had worked mainly in security and door work.
Mr Dwyer said he could not present anything else in mitigation because his client still maintained his innocence and intends to appeal the conviction.
Judge Patrick McCartan said if McNulty was not the attacker it had to be some deranged man who has never been discovered and who has never repeated his attack.
The judge said Ms Webb was “in pieces” during her testimony and the jury had believed her and had found McNulty’s testimony to be unbelievable. He said it had been a horrendous and vicious assault, carried out in broad daylight on a public street which had destroyed the victim’s life.