A DUBLIN man has been jailed for a year for his role in viciously attacking a taxi driver, leaving him with permanent brain damage.
Peter Cramp (22), Garryowen Road, Ballyfermot, had been intimidating the victim’s nephew with a co-accused at a city centre nightclub before the assault, which left William Brennan paralysed on one side of his face, with memory loss and no sense of taste or smell.
Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court said she accepted Cramp had played a more minor role in the assault but he was still an active participant who had a “catastrophic effect on his victim’s life”.
Mr Brennan, a father of five, had arrived outside the club to rescue his nephew from two young men who had threatened him and followed him on to the quays.
Garda Chris Cahill told John Quirke, prosecuting, that the pair attacked Mr Brennan when he got out of his cab to confront them for threatening him and his nephew.
Cramp had shouted: “We can threaten who we want. We can get both of you – one phone call. We’re untouchable.” He pleaded guilty on his trial date to assaulting Mr Brennan in the early hours of September 11th, 2006.
Mr Brennan told gardaí in hospital that Cramp held his arm, while his co-accused Anthony Denis (24), Lally Road, Ballyfermot, punched him in the face.
Mr Brennan fell to the ground, hitting his head with what his nephew Mark described as a “massive smack” while the assailants ran off over the Ha’penny Bridge.
Garda Cahill said Denis, who had 103 previous convictions, got three years for his role in the assault and consecutive sentences for unlawful taking and reckless endangerment because he had been on bail on the date of the attack.
Derek Cooney, defending, told Judge Delahunt that Cramp hardly went out any more and had €1,200 to give to his victim as a token of remorse. Judge Delahunt noted that the sum was less than Cramp’s monthly salary.