Man assaulted partner, her sister and her mother in Dublin hotel attack

By Isabel Hayes

A man who assaulted his partner, her sister and her mother in a Dublin hotel attack, leaving the oldest woman with three missing teeth, has been jailed for a year and a half.

Jason McDonagh (31) had travelled to Dublin from Manchester with his partner, her sister and mother along with his sister and mother in a trip to visit a family grave in February this year, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard yesterday.

On the evening in question, he started assaulting his partner in their hotel room, dragging her around and threatening to bite her ear off.

When she fled the room and alerted her sister and mother, McDonagh ended up punching all of them in a scuffle captured on hotel CCTV footage.

A large pyramid ring he was wearing on his hand – which was initially described by witnesses as a knuckle duster – exacerbated the injuries caused, the court heard.

McDonagh, with an address in Bread Street, Manchester, England, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault causing harm to the three women at Cassidy’s Hotel, Dublin 1 on February 16 this year.

It is an offence that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years under legislation that came into effect late last year.

Sentencing him yesterday, Judge Orla Crowe said McDonagh engaged in “utterly shameful violence”.

“These are people for whom he ought to have had the utmost respect,” the judge said.

The attack against his partner’s mother, who is in her 60s, was particularly bad, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement – the only one before the court – the 65-year-old woman said she was left embarrassed about her appearance and suffered severe head pain and eye problems in the wake of the assault.

The court heard McDonagh’s partner suffered lacerations to her head and ear and her sister suffered bumps to her head and bruising.

Judge Crowe took into account a number of mitigating factors before the court, including that McDonagh has a history of severe mental health problems, has a low level of intellectual functioning and has no previous convictions.

She handed down a two year sentence but suspended the final six months on a number of conditions.

She backdated the sentence to when he went into custody following his arrest last February.

Garda Ciaran Cahill told Miranda Egan-Langley BL, prosecuting, that gardaí responded to reports of a man beating up his partner with a knuckle duster in the hotel on the night in question.

They found the three women in a hotel room, two of whom were bleeding to the head and face.

Gardaí arrested McDonagh in his hotel room and he was taken into custody.

It later emerged the knuckle duster was actually a pyramid-shaped ring he was wearing at the time.

CCTV footage played in court showed McDonagh’s partner joining her mother and sister in the hallway after McDonagh assaulted her in their room.

McDonagh joined the women and a verbal altercation broke out, before it turned physical.

At one point, the three women were on the ground as McDonagh threw a number of punches in quick succession.

His mother and sister were also present during the scuffle, along with two hotel staff members who appeared on the scene and helped break it up.

Defence counsel Cathal O Braonain said it was a “brutal attack”. He said there has since been some kind of reconciliation between McDonagh and his partner.

The court heard he has had no visitors while in prison, with his family residing in Manchester.

He takes full responsibility for his actions that night and is remorseful, the court heard.