Suspended sentence for man who pleaded guilty to single punch assault

A CONVOY man was handed a two year suspended jail sentence after admitting throwing a punch at another man who had climbed into a car mistakenly believing it was a taxi after a night out.

Kyle Leeper, with an address at Carrickbrack, was charged with a single count of assault causing harm when he appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court.

His victim suffered a fractured temple and was treated for his injuries at Letterkenny University Hospital and at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

The accused pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm to Don Rowan at Lower Main Street, Letterkenny, on February 20, 2022.

The court heard that the injured party, his wife and friends had emerged from McGinley’s Bar and got into a car they believed was a taxi.

Kyle Leeper had left another local bar, Voodoo, with his girlfriend and was getting into the same vehicle which was being driven by the father of the accused’s girlfriend.

A row had ensued before the accused threw a punch at the injured party who fell backwards and hit his head off the pavement.

An ambulance was alerted to the scene but Mr Rowan did not go to hospital at the time.

Sergeant Maurice Doyle told the court, however, that the victim had started vomiting the following morning and had then attended Letterkenny University Hospital.

He was subsequently transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and was found to have a fracture of the right temple and other injuries.

Photographs of the injured party were produced in court while CCTV footage had identified the accused at the time of the incident.

The victim, who was forced to take three months off work following the incident, was not present in court.

The accused told Gardai that it was “some sort of self defence sort of thing”.

Defence counsel, Peter Nolan BL, instructed by Donough Cleary, solicitor, said his client had admitted that he had thrown one punch.

“He is a young man who has never got into bother before. This was just one split second.

“He got involved in a criminal act but is not a criminal. It was a bad decision he made. Mr Leeper is lucky that the victim did not receive more serious injuries,” said Mr Nolan.

The 25 year old accused had a degree in agricultural science and worked with his father.

He had an offer of €15,000 to present to the injured party that he had borrowed from his parents.

Mr Nolan pointed out that the accused had entered an early plea of guilty, had cooperated fully with the Gardaí, and had shown remorse for his actions.

His client had suffered from the psychological effects of his actions and was on anti-depressants.

References were handed into the court from a Farm Services company and from Cllr Frank McBrearty.

A further reference was furnished to the court on the day of sentencing by Rev.

Colm McKibben who said the accused was involved in the local Presbyterian church and had shown genuine remorse for the attack.

Called to the witness stand, the accused said he was sorry and added it would not happen again.

It was a “spur of the moment” incident.

Imposing sentence at yesterday’s sitting of the Circuit Court, Judge John Aylmer described the incident as a “serious assault” after which the victim, Mr Rowan had suffered a serious head injury after falling on the pavement as a result of the punch.

Placing the incident in the mid-range of such offences, the Judge said it merited a prison sentence of three years imprisonment.

But in mitigating circumstances, he said the offence had been completely out of character and represented, as the defence counsel had indicated, a “single bad decision” which he had made while intoxicated.

The accused had no previous convictions, was the father of a young child, and was at a low risk of reoffending according to the Probation and Welfare report.

“It’s clear that he is indeed very remorseful and this has weighed heavily on him.”

The accused had also produced a sum of €15,000 as a token of his remorse and had cooperated fully with the investigation into the incident.

Judge Aylmer reduced the sentence to one of two years and suspended it on its entirety on condition that he enter a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for a period of two years.

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