Two men have appeared in court after a vicious assault on an Ardara man whom a Judge remarked was lucky not to lose the sight in one of his eyes.
The accused men, Mark Bonner and Eoin Kitterick, appeared before a sitting of Donegal Circuit Court.
Both men pleaded guilty to assaulting Joseph Melly at Front Street, Ardara on June 7th, 2021.
The incident followed ‘banter’ between a group of two men including the two accused and their victim at Doherty’s Bar in Ardara.
Later that evening, Bonner set upon Mr Melly outside the bar before chasing him across the street and hitting him with six to seven punches around the face and head.
However, Garda Sergeant Maurice Doyle said it was an “upper cut” from Bonner which did the real damage to the victim.
The other accused man, Kitterick, had arrived in a car during the altercation and landed a few blows to the back of the victim.
Three different angles of CCTV footage of the attack was shown to the court.
The court was told that on the night Gardai were on patrol in the area around 11.10pm and saw a number of males pullings and dragging at another man.
They activated their blue lights and saw a man in a blue hoodie, later known to be Bonner and another man in a grey hoodie, now known to be Kitterick, and they had a man up against a car.
The men walked away but Gardai then came across Joseph Melly who had a number of injuries including a deep cut to his face, swollen eyes and was bleeding.
Another man alerted Gardai that one of the men involved, a Mark Bonner, had fled the scene and had gone to some woods nearby and that he was very concerned for him.
Bonner was found a short time later, apologised to Gardai for running away and said it was wrong what he had done.
Bonner, aged 25 and of Derryhenny, Doochary, pleaded guilty to assaulting Joseph Melly and causing him harm. The charge is contrary to section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.
Kitterick, a 26-year-old, with an address at Lough Head, Portnoo, tendered a guilty plea to assaulting Mr Melly, a charge contrary to section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.
Neither man has any previous convictions.
Bonner is a plumber by trade and a supervisor with a plumbing firm working in Liverpool while Kitterick is a carpenter and also in a supervisor’s role in Edinburgh.
Sergeant Doyle said the victim, Mr Melly, knew the case was on but had recently started a new job in Dublin and did not wish to make a victim impact statement.
Barrister for Bonner, Mr Simon Gillespie, BL, said the incident occurred when Covid restrictions had just been lifted and all men had been drinking in the pub for a long period of time.
During the course of banter, it was said to Bonner that he would “do nothing without his older brother” and that was the reason he saw red.
However, Mr Gillespie agreed with an earlier eye-witness report which said that Mr Melly was the peacemaker when the two groups had had words.
The two men had met out socially a couple of months after the incident and that there was no animosity between them.
Mr Gillespie said that as a token of his remorse, his client had saved €10,000 out of his own pocket to give to Mr Melly.
Sergeant Doyle said Mr Melly had indicated he would accept the offer.
Bonner took to the witness stand and told the court that he was disgusted by his actions and that he knows now that “violence is never the answer.”
He said he wishes that he could turn back the clock and that he is sickened every day he thinks about what he did and that it is not a true reflection of the person he is.
He admitted that he initially said he struck Mr Melly out of self defence but said he accepts this is not the case and that he “could have walked away.”
Mr Gillespie asked Judge John Aylmer to take into account that his client was just 19 years old at the time and that he is a genuine and hard working young man.
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He said his drinking was offered by way of context and not as an excuse but that he is now genuinely remorseful and that the incident was completely out of character for him.
References from Na Rossa GAA Club and Fr Eddie Gallagher were handed into court on Bonners behalf.
Barrister for Kitterick, Mr Damian Crawford, BL, said his client was before the court on a lesser charge of Section 2 assault of Mr Melly.
He said there had been a certain level of tension in the bar earlier between two groups.
His client, Kitterick, arrived back after driving away for chips, to find his friend in a fight with Mr Melly.
Mr Crawford said Mr Melly is a GAA player with Ardara and “a strong lad.” Kitterick reacted to seeing his friend fighting against an “older and bigger man” by hitting him a number of times in the back.
Kitterick said this had little impact and said he just wanted to “break things up.”
Sergeant Doyle agreed that Ketterick had been cooperative at all times and that he had not come to Garda attention since.
Mr Crawford said his client had the sum of €3,000 in court as a token of his remorse to Mr Melly.
He stressed that his client had no previous convictions, is in constant employment and has always cooperated with Gardai.
On the night he said he felt under threat after the tension in the bar.
He said that when he arrived on the scene, he mistakenly thought his friend was being attacked and his reaction was to try and protect his friend.
His actions were not in any way premeditated, added Mr Crawford.
He added that a probation report on Kitterick said he was a low risk of reoffending and that he had shown empathy and remorse for what he had done.
Considering his sentence, Judge Aylmer said it was Bonner who commenced the assault and said he placed the charge against him in the mid range of such assaults and merited a sentence of three years in prison before mitigation.
He retraced the attack by Bonner on Mr Melly and said it was lucky the victim did not lose his eye.
In mitigation, he said the accused was very young, had no previous convictions, that it was entirely out of character and that he had entered an early plea of guilty.
He noted that he lost his mother at the young age of 14 years but that he enjoyed very good family support and displayed an appropriate level of empathy and disgust at what he had done on the night.
For these reasons, Judge Aylmer said he was reducing the three years sentence to one of two years.
He then had to decide if he could suspend some or all of that sentence and because this was completely out of character, that he has no previous convictions and that he had come to court with a significant sum of money as a gesture of remorse, he could suspend that final two years.
Addressing his co-accused, Eoin Kitterick, the Judge said he arrived late on the scene of the incident, jumped to conclusions and wrongly decided that his friend was under attack.
Judge Aylmer said he ploughed in flailing six or seven punches to the body of Mr Melly but it fortunately did not cause great damage.
He noted that he had no previous convictions, that he was employed as a carpenter and that it appeared this was a complete aberration.
He said the court had to consider the consequences of a conviction on the accused and if he should be burdened with such at a time when he believed he was helping his friend whom he thought was under attack.
He said he took the view that it would be a serious injustice if Kitterick could not travel in future.
He said it was open to the court to impose a fine at the upper-most end of the scale but considering all the mitigation, he considered the sum of €1,000 to be appropriate.
However, he said he was also left with the option to invoke Section 100 the Criminal Justice Act 2006 which provides the legal basis for a deferred sentence.
Judge Aylmer adjourned Kitterick’s final sentence until October 7th and if by that time he does not come to the court’s attention, the fine of €1,000 will not be imposed and he will be discharged.