A TALENTED footballer who smashed a glass in a man’s face in a Dublin nightclub has been given a suspended sentence.
Lee Moore (24) was left with multiple cuts to his face, which included a severed artery around his jawline, after Neil Mulvey struck him with the glass.
Mulvey (21), Shamrock Lodge, Glencullen, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing serious harm at Rodeo Joe’s in Churchtown on November 3rd, 2010. He had no previous convictions.
Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Mulvey to three years, which he suspended in full on the condition that he hands over €17,000 as a token of his remorse to the victim in the next 18 months.
The court heard that Mulvey already had €10,000 for Mr Moore, €7,500 of which he had saved himself. His siblings lent him the balance.
Judge Nolan described the case as “grim” but accepted that Mulvey was a disciplined sportsman who met the case as best as he could. He was satisfied that Mulvey was unlikely to come before the courts again and asked was it “absolutely necessary in this case to imprison him for what he has done?”
The judge said any assault with a glass is a serious one, but he decided not to impose a custodial sentence “principally because of his good record and his clear remorse”.
Garda Patrick Murray told Tara Burns, prosecuting, that Mr Moore approached a woman in the nightclub, tapping her on the shoulder, because he thought he knew her. When he realised she was a stranger, he exchanged “some pleasantries” with her before another man, not Mulvey, tapped him on the shoulder, shook his hand and introduced himself.
Garda Murray said Mr Moore was aware this “introduction” was because he had been talking to this woman. He then received two blows to the back of the head.
Mr Moore walked away from the man, because he did not want the incident to escalate, and returned to his group of friends. One of his friends knew Mr Moore’s attacker so he alerted the security to the situation and the man was taken out of the club.
Mulvey, who was with the other man, approached Mr Moore and attempts were made “to settle” the incident. Garda Murray said the next thing Mr Moore knew he was on the floor bleeding profusely.
One of the victim’s friends recognised Mulvey as the attacker and followed him in an attempt to identify him to gardaí but he had left the premises. Mr Moore was taken to hospital by ambulance where he was treated for the lacerations to his face.
Garda Murray agreed with Isobel Kennedy SC, defending, that her client told gardaí in interview that he had “consumed an enormous amount of alcohol” that night, more than he normally would drink. He accepted that he was “an avid and very talented footballer” who had expressed a high level of remorse.
Garda Murray agreed with Ms Kennedy that the assault was “out of character” for Mulvey, that he accepted total responsibility and had given gardaí a letter he had written for Mr Moore.
Ms Kennedy told Judge Nolan that the Mulvey family were devastated by the assault.