Teenager took part in ear cutting assault

By Isabel Hayes & Claire Henry

A then-teenager who took part in the serious assault of a man who was stabbed repeatedly with a scissors in his own home and had his ear almost entirely cut off has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Owen Healy (23) was 18 years old when he and a number of other young men attacked the man after he asked them to leave his home, which they were drinking in.

Passing sentence today, Judge Orla Crowe said, “This was a sustained and horrendous attack where the injured party has sustained lifelong injuries”, and “he thought he was going to die”.

Judge Crowe said, “They all took turns to cut the man’s ear, and the accused did so too”.

She said, “The injured party had multiple stab wounds to his head, neck, legs and body, as well as multiple tendon injuries to his hands”.

The judge said the aggravating factors in this case were the severity of the attack and the sustained nature of the attack in the man’s own home.

She outlined that the maximum sentence available to the court was seven years and placed this at the upper end of the scale.

She set a headline sentence of five years.

Judge Crowe listed the accused’s young age at the time of the attack, his drug addiction, his guilty plea, and his apologies during garda interview and in court as mitigating factors in this case.

She sentenced Healy to three and a half years in prison, and in order to incentivise his rehabilitation, she suspended the final six months for two years.

Healy must remain under the supervision of the probation services for one-year post-release and carry out all directions as outlined by them.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the 40-year-old victim was stabbed repeatedly with a scissors, including a 10-15cm laceration to the scalp, was hit repeatedly on the head with a vodka bottle, had his ear almost entirely severed and was told he was going to die during the attack.

Healy, with an address at Dromheath Drive, Mulhuddart, Dublin, pleaded guilty to one count of endangerment in relation to his role in the incident at Whitefriar Gardens, Dublin 8, on August 1, 2018.

He has 41 previous convictions but only three predate this attack.

Sinead McMullan BL, prosecuting, told the court that another man was previously jailed for seven-and-a-half years for his role in the attack while the main instigator was sentenced earlier this week to eight years and a half years in prison.

Detective Garda Sarah Keogh told the court that the victim in the case received a call from his adult daughter in the early hours of the night, asking if she could stay over.

He agreed, and she then arrived with two other women and some male friends.

The group was drinking, and some of the men started shaving the eyebrows of one man who had fallen asleep on the couch.

The victim became concerned and asked the group to leave.

His daughter and the other women left, but the young men stayed behind.

They were initially trying to shave the head of another young man, but they turned on the victim when he asked them to stop.

The instigator in the assault started hitting the man over the head with a vodka bottle before telling the other men to take turns doing it.

He told them, “If you don’t join in hitting him, it’s going to happen to you.”

The men, including Healy, hit the man several times before the instigator got a pair of scissors and told the group, “You’re going to see how you cut somebody up”.

He then started to cut off the victim’s ear as he screamed in pain, and the others kept hitting him with the bottle.

The men all took turns cutting his ear, leaving it almost entirely severed, the court heard.

The victim was then dragged to his bath, partially stripped, and water was turned on.

When he tried to get out of the bath, one of the attackers broke a glass mirror over his head.

The instigator then stuffed a mobile phone charger down his throat, telling him, “You’re dead tonight.”

The assault eventually ended when the leader told the others to wash the blood off themselves, and they left the property.

The victim was spotted by his neighbours covered in blood and in a semi-conscious state.

An ambulance was called, and he was taken to hospital.

A medical report before the court stated that the victim received multiple lacerations to his head, face, torso, arms and legs.

He had tendon injuries to a number of his fingers.

His ear was almost entirely amputated.

A victim impact statement was handed into court but not read out.

The court heard that when interviewed by gardaí, the victim said that Healy and another teenager were “bullied” into attacking him by the instigator of the attack.

The court heard Healy took turns hitting him over the head with the bottle and cutting his ear.

Shortly after the attack, Healy was seen at the homeless hostel teary-eyed and covered in blood.

He and some of his co-accused were staying there at the time.

Gardaí were called when one of the workers found part of an ear on the ground outside the hostel.

When interviewed by gardaí, Healy said the leader had put pressure on him to stab the victim but denied injuring him.

Fiona Pekaar, BL, defending, said that her client is now “23 years of age, and this is the most serious matter that he has been involved in”.

She said he “thinks about this every day and has a huge amount of remorse”.

Ms Pekaar said her client became homeless at the age of 17 when his mother put him out of the home for drug use as there were people calling to her house.

He is now back living at home with his mother and partner and has a baby on the way.

A probation report was previously given to the court, which said that Healy has a huge amount of empathy for the victim.

Ms Pekaar asked the court to take into consideration his age at the time of the offence and to “leave a window open to him to allow him to rehabilitate”.