Man who assaulted a garda and rendered him unconscious is jailed

By Sonya McLean

A man who punched a garda repeatedly and rendered him unconscious, has been jailed for 18 months.

The court heard that Ryan O’Toole (34) was heavily intoxicated when he approached Garda Karl Byrne and asked him: “What is your fucking problem?”

Gda Byrne, who had been standing outside a block of Dublin apartments because of a disturbance that O’Toole had caused, informed O’Toole on several occasions that he was a garda.

Sergeant Paul Daly told Simon Matthews BL, prosecuting, that Gda Byrne didn’t want to confront O’Toole and tried his best to de-escalate the situation, but O’Toole came up to him and into his face.

The garda told O’Toole again that he was a garda and told him to back off, but O’Toole punched him in the head and continued to swing wildly at him, knocking the garda to the ground.

He continued to punch the victim as he lay on the ground, leaving the garda feeling dazed.

Sgt Daly said at this point, residents began to gather in an attempt to keep O’Toole away from Gda Byrne, but O’Toole got the garda into a headlock, lifted him off the ground and threw him back onto the ground.

He also bit the garda’s finger. As the crowd continued to try to keep O’Toole back, garda colleagues arrived and also tried to intervene.

It was still difficult to restrain O’Toole, Sgt Daly said, and he continued to reach across officers to strike Gda Ryan.

He eventually knocked the garda unconscious.

Sgt Daly confirmed that Gda Byrne was found to have a concussion and a fractured nose, although it was not certain if that fracture could be attributed to the assault by O’Toole.

Gda Byrne had not prepared a victim impact statement for the case.

O’Toole, of Oriel Street Lower, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm on Fitzgibbon Street in Dublin on December 11, 2022.

He has seven previous convictions for offences including possession of knives and obstruction of a garda.

Judge Martin Nolan accepted that O’Toole was “very badly intoxicated” having taken cocaine and was “incredibly aggressive”.

He acknowledged that he had previous convictions, but noted that they were not for serious offences.

“Undoubtedly he deserves a prison term,” Judge Nolan said, before he imposed an 18 month prison sentence.

Sgt Daly agreed with Garrett McCormack BL, defending, that Gda Byrne returned to work two weeks after the assault.

He accepted that O’Toole was heavily intoxicated and that it was “frenzied behaviour”. “Yes it was very aggressive,” Sgt Daly said.

He further accepted that O’Toole has not come to garda attention since the offence.

Mr McCormack said his client is apologetic and accepts there was “no excuse for the level of violence on the day”.

He asked the court to accept that his early guilty plea was “a demonstration of his remorse and contrition”.

Counsel said his client had since rehabilitated and dealt with the addiction issues he had at the time.