A MAN attacked his neighbour because she had earlier punched his partner while she was holding their two-month-old baby, a court has been. The father of five, Elia Cassandro, was then stabbed by Lisa Lee after she threatened him with a blade if he did not stop beating her up. He fled but was soon caught by gardaí.
Cassandro (32), Meadowlands Avenue, Dún Laoghaire, pleaded guilty to assault causing Ms Lee harm on May 7th, 2009. He received a suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Garda Ivor Scully told Anne Rowland, prosecuting, that both Cassandro and Ms Lee were taken to hospital. Ms Lee had fractures to her jaw and possibly her nose while Cassandro was bleeding heavily from a stab wound to his shoulder.
Garda Scully said Cassandro had arrived at Ms Lee’s home in a van driven by his brother after he received a call from his partner, Sinéad O’Neill, complaining that Ms Lee had just punched her while she was out shopping with her two-month-old baby.
This assault was captured on CCTV footage and Ms Lee later pleaded guilty to it in court. Ms O’Neill then phoned Cassandro again, claiming that Ms Lee was following her and made a further call to say that the woman had just threatened to stab her.
Cassandro later told gardaí that he turned up at Ms Lee’s home and that it had been his intention to frighten her. He punched her and she fell to the ground where he continued to hit her.
Garda Scully said Cassandro has no previous convictions, he had not come to Garda attention since and would not come before the courts again. He agreed with Michael Connellan, defending, that Cassandro tried to call the Garda having received the complaints from his partner.
Mr Connellan told Judge Martin Nolan that Cassandro realised he went too far and he had €500 in court to offer as a token of his remorse. He and his partner were expecting their sixth child and had moved out of the area.
Judge Nolan sentenced him to 18 months in jail which he suspended in full after commenting that Cassandro had, “in an error of judgment”, hit Ms Lee. He assumed Ms Lee felt she was within her rights to stab Cassandro as she believed she was defending herself.