TWO YOUNG married men who beat up a staff nurse at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin during a dispute with one of their relatives have each received 18 months in jail with the last six months suspended.
Stephen Gavin (26) and Patrick Ward (27) had been involved in an earlier fracas between relatives at a wedding and continued assaulting family member Francis Gavin after he was brought to hospital.
Gavin and Ward kicked and punched staff nurse Stephen McDonald in the chest when he tried to break up the fight.
Gavin, a father-of-one of Campsite, Coolock Lane, Santry, and his cousin Ward, a father-of-two of Northern Close, Coolock, both pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Mr McDonald at the hospital on September 1st, 2009.
Gavin has four previous minor traffic convictions and Ward has 11 for similar matters.
Judge Katherine Delahunt noted the €1,500 and €1,200 raised by Gavin and Ward respectively as tokens of their remorse but said the attack was “unacceptable on any level and drink will not be accepted as an excuse”.
Garda Francis Chaney said the cousins had been in a fight with Francis Gavin and other relatives at a wedding earlier that day and later at a Coolock halting site.
Garda Chaney told Fergal Foley, prosecuting, that there had been tensions between family factions before the wedding at Portmarnock Hotel Golf Links. He said Francis Gavin was taken to Beaumont Hospital after the halting site fight and subjected to another attack by Ward and Gavin.
He said Mr McDonald missed two weeks’ work after the assault. He added that the family feud has since been resolved and there were no other charges pending against Gavin and Ward.
Garda Chaney agreed with Luigi Rea, defending Gavin, that his client had a good work history on building sites and as a landscape gardener and had no previous convictions for serious offences such as burglary and robbery. The garda agreed with Pieter Le Vert, defending Ward, that gardaí had noted his client as being “excessively drunk” on the night.
Both counsel submitted to the judge that their clients had each entered early guilty pleas, raised compensation to offer to Mr McDonald as a token of their remorse and were deeply ashamed of their actions.
Mr Le Vert told the judge that nobody in his client’s family had a drink or drug problem, even though there had been a lot of alcohol consumed on the night. Mr Rea said Gavin accepts his behaviour had been “outrageous”.