A 21-YEAR-OLD Sydney man has been acquitted of the attempted murder of Corkman David Keohane on August 9th, 2008.
The jury deliberated for just over a day before returning the verdict to an expressionless Thomas Isaako.
Just before lunchtime yesterday the jury told Judge Ronald Soloman they could not reach a unanimous decision. He told them to continue deliberating, and they came back with an acquittal within hours.
David Keohane was in a coma for eight months and in hospital for more than a year after being attacked in the beachside suburb of Coogee by Isaako and an accomplice, who is still at large.
Sydney’s district court heard they beat Mr Keohane, then 29, so severely that almost every bone in his face was fractured, and doctors did not expect him to survive.
Mr Keohane was repatriated to Ireland while still in a coma, from which he emerged on St Patrick’s Day 2009.
Isaako had previously pleaded guilty to robbery and inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Keohane. When asked why he did not call for an ambulance when he saw Mr Keohane bleeding and unconscious on the ground, Isaako told police: “I was just in my own world.”
Speaking outside the court, Mr Keohane’s father, Tom, told reporters he was “very disappointed” with the verdict. “I feel that it’s my son who has been given a life sentence. I just hope the judge comes down hard on this guy for the attempted robbery and the wounding. I hope he [Isaako] rots in f***ing hell,” he said.
Mr Keohane’s sister Carol was also in Sydney for the trial. In her victim’s impact statement, she said: “I remember during this time (my sister) Sinéad and I ringing his voicemail just to hear the sound of his voice . . .
“It was soul-destroying and heartbreaking to see such a fit and active young man travel back [to Ireland] unconscious with no control over his body, and no awareness that he was even leaving Australia and the successful life he had built for himself.”
Ms Keohane said her brother did not “know how he would live with these restrictions in his life”.
“He struggles at times coming to terms with the simplicity of some of the things he has to be taught,” she said.
Isaako is expected to be sentenced on April 23rd for his attack on Mr Keohane, and a second unrelated violent robbery.
In another separate, unrelated incident, another Irish national was assaulted in Sydney on Sunday night.
Paddy Fox (29), from Mitchelstown, Co Cork suffered serious head and brain injuries and had emergency surgery after he was assaulted in Randwick, a neighbouring suburb of Coogee, where Mr Keohane was attacked.
A Dublin man, Gearóid Walsh, was also assaulted in Coogee last October and died from his injuries a few days later.
Police said Mr Fox fell and struck his head on the ground after he was assaulted. A 19-year-old man with a local address was subsequently arrested and charged with recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm.