Assaulted inspector after he was asked for his train ticket, Carlow Circuit Court heard
Bagenalstown Railway Station Photo: Michael O'Rourke
“FRONTLINE workers are entitled to do their work without being violently assaulted,” Judge Eugene O’Kelly remarked as he handed down a four-year prison sentence to a Carlow man for assaulting a ticket inspector after he was asked to produce a ticket.
The assault was one of two offences William McCarthy, 5 Springfield Park, Old Burrin Road, Carlow pleaded guilty to at a previous circuit court session at Carlow courthouse. He had also pleaded guilty to burglary and criminal damage at Éire Óg clubhouse in Carlow town. For this offence, Mr McCarthy received a concurrent three-year, nine-month prison sentence.
The assault occurred on 14 September 2024 at around 4.55pm as the train approached Bagenalstown station. The victim, a 61-year-old man at the time, encountered Mr McCarthy, who was known to staff as a regular passenger who often did not have a valid ticket, and he asked him repeatedly to produce a ticket. The defendant did not do so and was ordered to leave the train.
Tara Geoghegan BL, representing Mr McCarthy, pointed out later that Mr McCarthy had taken objection to being the only person in the carriage asked to present a ticket.
There was a short discussion between the two as the train pulled into the station and CCTV footage from the entryway onto the train showed how the defendant suddenly turned around, put his hand around the neck of the victim and repeatedly punched him. The victim attempted to defend himself and, after a minute or so, other passengers intervened and separated them.
Mr McCarthy left the train at Bagenalstown station.
The victim was brought to Waterford University Hospital for treatment and suffered bruising to his face and a broken right index finger.
“On the day of the assault, I woke up as a 61-year-old man, went to work and I was brutally assaulted for asking a simple question ‘can I see your ticket please’,” the victim’s impact statement read.
He outlined that he had suffered emotionally and financially because of the assault. He was unable to work for several months afterwards due to anxiety and stress. He told the court that he eased back into working on trains, buddying up with staff members and attending counselling. He said his wife now worries about him when he goes to work and that he is in daily pain as a result of a broken finger.
Garda Peter Shortall outlined that the assault on the ticket inspector was not provoked, and he described it as deliberate as opposed to just reckless.
In a separate matter, the defendant pleaded guilty to theft and criminal damage at Éire Óg clubhouse on 8 August 2024. Mr McCarthy admitted entering the clubhouse with another person through a broken window in the middle of the night, removing a safe from the wall and stealing its contents, totalling €1,530. He also forced open a cigarette machine and stole its contents worth €2,430. Damage to the safe was valued at €2,000.
The damage was discovered by the manager of the clubhouse the next morning, who called the gardaí. CCTV footage showed that there were two men at the clubhouse, but gardaí were not in a position to identify either man. However, they found a sample of blood on the machine and sent it for DNA testing and the result matched that of Mr McCarthy.
Under cross-examination, Garda Shortall said it was correct that the men did not damage the structure of the property and that the other person involved remained unidentified.
As for relevant previous offences, Brian O’Shea BL, for the prosecution, stated that Mr McCarthy had a total of 88 previous convictions, including nine for burglary, four of which were in respect of the Éire Óg premises. He also had several previous assault convictions, convictions for possession of knives and other articles, for possession of drugs, criminal damage, public order, domestic abuse and 29 offences under the .
Ms Geoghegan outlined that her client was in the throes of a serious addiction when he burgled the clubhouse and that there was “no stage during that time that he did not owe a drug debt to other persons.” She said it was “criminality of desperation” to feed his drug habit and that he has little or no recollection of that night.
Regarding the incident on the train, Ms Geoghegan said he “felt he was being singled out and took issue. This does not go to his credit, but goes to his state of mind at the time. There is no excuse for the offence, judge,” she noted.
She told the court that at the time Mr McCarthy was severely underweight and “nothing in his life was going right for him”. She said that Mr McCarthy described himself as “agitated, paranoid, irritable, short-tempered and very aggressive” when he was under the influence of heroin, as he was during the incident on the train.
She contrasted that figure with the man who appeared via video link to the courtroom, who is “remorseful”, has “gained an insight into his offending behaviour” and is addressing his addiction issues.
She described her client as “doing remarkably well” in custody.
She pointed out that he had a third child born just after he entered custody and wants to be in a position to prove himself to the care agencies upon his release and take custody of his child.
In imposing a sentence for the criminal damage at Éire Óg and theft of the contents of the cigarette machine and safe, taking into consideration two counts of burglary, Judge O’Kelly described it as an offence in the mid-range of gravity and put a headline sentence at five years. He reduced it to three years and nine months because of the guilty plea and Mr McCarthy’s long history of addiction.
Regarding the assault of the Irish Rail ticket inspector, the judge said he found it “particularly aggravating that this was an assault on a frontline worker simply doing his job. It would have been a dereliction of his duty not to ask (Mr McCarthy) for his ticket”.
He noted the defendant was on bail, that there was an age disparity between the victim and defendant and that the offence took place in public. He set a headline sentence of eight years. Again, considering Mr McCarthy’s guilty plea, apology and progress while in custody, he reduced it to a six-year sentence.
He suspended the final two years of the sentence for two years post-release, on the condition that he engage with probation supervision for 18 months and follow its directions regarding addiction counselling and employment. The sentence was backdated to January 2025, when he entered custody.
The two prison sentences are to run concurrently.
