A 17-YEAR-OLD who left a man in a coma by jumping on his head has been given a four-year prison sentence with two suspended by Judge Frank O’Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
His co-accused, Jamie O’Reilly (18) of Parslikstown Court, Mulhuddart, got a three-year sentence with two suspended for his role in assaulting the man, who had been out at the pub celebrating his birthday with friends.
The teenagers pleaded guilty to assaulting the 29-year-old man on a roadside in the early hours of February 2nd, 2007.
Garda Karl Smith said colleagues in an unmarked car spotted the 17-year-old, who can’t be named for legal reasons, jumping two feet in the air on to the man’s head while he lay still on the roadside.
He told prosecution counsel Karen O’Connor that the victim was breathing irregularly and there was blood on the ground beside him before an ambulance rushed him to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.
The man woke up from his coma several days later and said in his victim impact statement that he had no recollection of the night apart from being in a pub with his friends. Garda Smith said O’Reilly claimed the man reacted aggressively when the teenagers commented on his “locked” state as he was passing by the field where they had been drinking.