A MAN who inflicted “horrific” eye injuries on a garda when he kicked her in the face at a Halloween bonfire has been given a 10-year sentence.
Andrew Freaney (24), Elm Park, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, was found guilty by a jury on Thursday night of seriously assaulting Garda Helena Power on October 31st, 2008.
The sentencing hearing heard that Garda Power’s right eye-socket was fractured in four places as a result of the kick she received from Freaney at a Halloween bonfire on Bianconi Drive, Clonmel.
Her eyeball needed 14 stitches while two operations were needed to correct eyesight problems.
Three years of the sentence will be suspended on condition of good behaviour after his release following seven years in jail.
It emerged yesterday during his sentencing hearing at Clonmel Circuit Court that he had had a previous conviction for assaulting Garda Power on Christmas Eve of 2006 and a conviction for assaulting her colleague, Garda Eoin Clifford, along with 17 other previous convictions.
The Garda Representative Association last night welcomed the outcome of the case, saying they hoped the sentence would act as a deterrent to anyone tempted to assault gardaí.
“Hopefully it will send out a clear message that an attack on an emergency service worker will carry a severe sentence to warrant the seriousness of such an offence,” the association’s legal assistance chairman, Damien McCarthy, said.
Judge Thomas McDonagh also imposed a three-year sentence for assaulting another garda, Sgt Thomas O’Halloran, causing him harm, to which Freaney had pleaded guilty.
This will be served concurrently with the first sentence.
A victim impact statement read out in court said Garda Power had “lost all appetite” for her job as a result of what happened to her.
“I’m not the person I used to be. I hate the person I’ve become because of a vicious and unprovoked attack.”
Gardaí became emotional as the effects of the assault on Garda Power were outlined to Clonmel Circuit Court.
She said she was “upset and distressed” as she felt she let her colleagues down on the night of the incident, suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and, when back at work, she was “in constant fear” that she would not be able to protect herself or her colleagues.
The assaults happened when gardaí tried to send Freaney’s younger brother, who was 16 at the time and drunk, home, and then tried to arrest him when he refused.
Freaney hit Sgt O’Halloran four punches to the face and, when Garda Power intervened with her baton, he kicked her in the face. There were about 40 to 50 people at the bonfire, the six-day trial heard.
In his victim impact statement, Sgt O’Halloran said he sought a transfer from Clonmel after the incident and struggled even to go back to the town to give evidence at the trial.
Judge McDonagh said Garda Power had acted “rather bravely” in the circumstances, when trying to help her colleagues but she had suffered “horrific injuries”.
He refused leave to appeal.