{"id":303499,"date":"2026-02-18T02:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/303499\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T02:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:13:07","slug":"man-who-killed-canadian-tourist-with-full-force-running-kick-to-head-jailed-for-5%c2%bd-years-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/303499\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who killed Canadian tourist with \u2018full force running kick\u2019 to head jailed for 5\u00bd years \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who killed a Canadian<\/a> tourist in Dublin<\/a> city centre by \u201cbrazenly\u201d delivering a \u201cfull force running kick\u201d straight to his head has been jailed for 5\u00bd years.<\/p>\n

Sentencing 25-year-old Ionut Danca at the Central Criminal Court<\/a> on Tuesday, judge Paul McDermott said this was an attack on a defenceless man, who was lying prone on the ground under the influence of alcohol and was no threat to anyone.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe kick to the head was deliberately aimed and carried out brazenly in public view on a main street in Dublin city. There was no need and no justification for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of Danca, a Romanian national, getting help or walking away, the judge said the defendant had run at Canadian national Neno Dolmajian, kicking him in the head, causing his death resulting in the loss of \u201csuch a valuable life\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judge went on to say that the victim came across as a \u201cpositive person\u201d who was full of life, vigour, creativity and laughter. He said Dolmajian was visiting Dublin from Canada, looking for new experiences and to engage with new people in a positive way.<\/p>\n

Describing the incident as \u201cdevastating\u201d, the judge said there was nothing the court could do or say to relieve the devastation suffered by the Dolmajian family. <\/p>\n

Ionut Danca pleaded guilty last year to the unlawful killing of Neno Dolmajian (42) on July 2nd, 2024, at O\u2019Connell Street Upper.<\/p>\n

Danca\u2019s co-accused, Madalin Ghiuzan (24), had pleaded guilty to assaulting Dolmajian, causing him harm at Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who killed a Canadian tourist in Dublin city centre by \u201cbrazenly\u201d delivering a \u201cfull force running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[289,42851,615,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-303499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-canada","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}