Sentenced to four years by Carlow Circuit Court for assaulting sister’s ex-partner with hurl
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A 46-year-old man was found guilty of assaulting his sister’s ex-partner and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison at a sitting of Carlow Circuit Court recently.
John Dillon, 4 Montgomery Street, Carlow pleaded not guilty to assault causing harm and production of a weapon, namely a hurl, during an incident at Mill Lane, Carlow at midday on 21 June 2024. The trial ran for three days and the jury deliberated for just over an hour before coming back with a unanimous guilty verdict on both counts.
In sentencing the defendant, Judge Eugene O’Kelly described the attack as “a deliberate and cowardly assault with the use of a weapon”.
The victim gave evidence in court and said that on the day in question he had an appointment with the probation services on Mill Lane. As he was parking, he noticed a group, including Mr Dillon, sitting on the steps of Carlow Castle. He said Mr Dillon hurled “abuse” at him and the defendant’s girlfriend said: “They’ll let anyone into Carlow these days.”
CCTV from outside the probation service captured the victim ringing the bell of the office and an assailant clad in black with his hood pulled up running from the opposite side of the road and hitting the victim deliberately on the head from behind.
Of the attack, the victim said: “I felt a thump on the top of my head and everything went black. I fell down, hit my elbow, then fell on my back.” He believed he was unconscious for 20 or 30 seconds.
“My vision started coming back, my ears were ringing. I could feel the heat of the blood coming down on the side of my head,” he said.
A probation officer saw the incident on CCTV and rushed down to let him inside. She called the gardaí, who arrived shortly afterwards.
The victim, who shares children with Mr Dillon’s sister, suffered a bruised arm and a deep cut two inches long on the top right of his head. He received eight stitches in hospital.
Prosecuting barrister Brian O’Shea BL described the case as “straightforward” from the outset, noting the fact that the victim was assaulted with a hurley was not in doubt. Instead, he focused the jury’s attention on the need to correctly identify the assailant.
The prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence linking Mr Dillon with the crime: he was seen around the steps of Carlow Castle by the victim right before the incident and gardaí alleged Mr Dillon’s clothing in CCTV footage 20 minutes prior to the assault matched that of the assailant.
The prosecution further alleged that Mr Dillon had taken the hurley from his sister’s shed earlier that morning. Mr Dillon’s nephew had noticed it was missing after the incident. The defendant was staying at their house with his girlfriend for a couple of weeks prior to the incident and his sister had asked him to leave on the morning of the incident. In her evidence to the court, she described him as being “angry” in reaction to her request.
Gardaí did not find the assailant or the weapon at the scene when they arrived. Garda Cillian Mohally said he recognised Mr Dillon from the CCTV as he was known to him from policing in Carlow and he arrested him on 8 July 2024 at CircleK on Green Lane.
In his garda interview after being arrested, Mr Dillon alleged that he was at Carlow Castle on the morning of the incident because he was waiting to be collected for work and that he was collected at around 11.30am. He denied staying with his sister in the previous weeks, knowing the victim as the ex-partner of his sister or seeing any incident occur that day.
Barrister for the defence, Sean Rafter BL, put it to Garda Mohally that in CCTV footage from 20 minutes before the interview, no hurl could be seen on Mr Dillon. In response, Garda Mollahy said: “From my experience, you can conceal a hurl anywhere on your body.”
During a combative cross-examination of the victim, Mr Rafter put it to him that he had a “number of enemies” and that the assault could have also been “a random act of violence”. The victim emphatically denied his suggestions.
Mr O’Shea told the jury in his closing arguments that the prosecution believed there was “bad blood” between the parties, which had been Mr Dillon’s motive.
At a subsequent sentencing hearing, Garda Mohally confirmed that the defendant had three previous convictions for possession of knives, three for assaults, eight for burglary, 19 for criminal damage, among others, and had been convicted of manslaughter in 2003.
Judge O’Kelly described the defendant as being engaged from a young age in “wanton criminality”. He noted that he had served approximately half of his 14-year sentence for manslaughter and had continued offending after his release.
Mr Rafter outlined factors that might lessen his client’s sentence, such as that he had come from a “particularly adverse home”. He said the defendant’s stepfather was “violent and brutish” and maintained a “reign of terror” in the household when his client was growing up in Co Louth.
Mr Dillon had apparently struggled in school and left after completing his intermediate certificate to work as a builder’s labourer. Mr Rafter said his client soon “turned to the anaesthesia of the traumatised soul” and became addicted to drugs and alcohol at a young age, spurring on a violent cycle of offending.
He argued that after spending time in prison for the manslaughter conviction, his client had enjoyed a period of avoiding serious offending that coincided with the birth of his first child. However, his four children were subsequently taken into care and Mr Rafter suggested that this led to a “ratcheting up” of offending.
Judge O’Kelly did not agree with Mr Rafter that the offence was opportunistic rather than premeditated or that the weapon was not particularly fearsome. He considered the use of a hurley to be a significantly aggravating feature and set a headline sentence for the offence at eight years in prison.
He regretted the defendant’s lack of remorse or taking of responsibility and reduced the sentence to six years and nine months. He suspended the final year for one-year post-release, on the condition that Mr Dillon is supervised by the probation services. He backdated the sentence to when the defendant surrendered bail in March 2026.
Initially, Mr Dillon refused to enter a €100 bond with the court and Judge O’Kelly inclined to reimpose the suspended part of the sentence. However, Mr Rafter quickly advised his client on the law, the bond was readministered and entered by Mr Dillon.
