{"id":341445,"date":"2026-03-12T00:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T00:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/341445\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T00:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T00:25:09","slug":"man-who-punched-brendan-courtney-came-forward-to-gardai-after-dublin-assault-court-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/341445\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who punched Brendan Courtney came forward to garda\u00ed after Dublin assault, court hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who punched broadcaster Brendan Courtney<\/a> several times voluntarily contacted garda\u00ed<\/a> to tell him he had been involved in the assault, a court has heard. <\/p>\n

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Courtney was walking home along the quays in Dublin<\/a> around 9.30pm on February 27th, 2025, when he was beckoned over to a car stopped at traffic lights. <\/p>\n

The court heard the front passenger appeared to roll down the window and call him over. Courtney went over, thinking he knew the occupants of the car, and later told garda\u00ed that he believed they were ridiculing him.<\/p>\n

He turned to leave, tapping on the window as he went. <\/p>\n

The back seat passenger in the car, Ross Deegan (22), left the vehicle, then assaulted Courtney, along with a co-accused who is also before the courts. <\/p>\n

CCTV of the assault was played to the court. Deegan ran at the injured party, then punched him. He threw two further punches to the side of Courtney\u2019s head. <\/p>\n

The court heard it is alleged the co-accused also assaulted Courtney, who was carrying shopping bags and pinned against a wall, throwing a number of punches and kicking him in the stomach.<\/p>\n

Deegan then got back into the car, which drove away. <\/p>\n

Ross Deegan of An Riasc, Finglas, Dublin 11, contacted garda\u00ed voluntarily on March 5th last year, identifying his involvement in the assault. <\/p>\n

Deegan came forward from the District Court on a signed guilty plea to assaulting Courtney causing harm on February 27th, 2025, at Usher\u2019s Quay in Dublin city centre.<\/p>\n

\"RossRoss Deegan. Photograph: Collins Courts <\/p>\n

A cyclist stopped and helped Courtney, who went into a nearby pub. Nothing was said by the men during the incident and there was no suggestion the parties are known to each other, the court heard. <\/p>\n

When garda\u00ed arrived, they noticed cuts to Courtney\u2019s ear, chin and the back of his neck. <\/p>\n

Garda Shane Monahan told David Perry, prosecuting, that Courtney did not seek medical attention that night and went to hospital the following day after waking up in pain. He sustained a concussion and a fracture of his eye socket. A medical report and photos were provided to the court. <\/p>\n

When interviewed by garda\u00ed, Deegan claimed it was self-defence. He said the injured party approached the car aggressively and struck the front passenger window with his fist. <\/p>\n

Deegan said he perceived this as an attempt to hit his brother, who was in the front seat. He said he got out of the car to defend himself and his brother and admitted punching the injured party three or four times. <\/p>\n

No victim impact statement was provided to the court.<\/p>\n

Deegan has no previous convictions and has not come to other garda attention. <\/p>\n

The garda agreed with Oisin Clarke, defending, that the cyclist said in a statement there had been a knock on the front passenger window. <\/p>\n

It was further accepted this case had received some media attention, that Deegan was co-operative, and the assault appears random and not premeditated. <\/p>\n

The court heard Deegan had brought \u20ac1,500 to court as a gesture of remorse. Monahan said Courtney does not wish to accept the money and suggested it should be donated to the Mater Hospital or a charity of the court\u2019s choice. <\/p>\n

\"RossRoss Deegan. Photograph: Collins Courts <\/p>\n

Clarke said this is an \u201cutterly bizarre offence\u201d, which does not really have an explanation.<\/p>\n

Referring to the statement from the cyclist, Clarke said the catalyst appeared to be a \u201cbang of some description on the window\u201d and Deegan took umbrage. <\/p>\n

Counsel said this was not an excuse for what happened and asked the court to take into account his client\u2019s guilty plea, co-operation and youth at the time.<\/p>\n

Two letters of apology, including one written to Courtney, and letters of reference from family members were handed to the court. Clarke said these letters speak of a man who is \u201csupportive and helpful to others\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said his client was supportive of his two sisters, who are gay. He noted his client is adamant that he did not know who the injured party was.<\/p>\n

Judge Martina Baxter said the court had concerns as Deegan behaved in \u201csuch a reprehensible fashion\u201d on the night and has not come to other negative attention before or since. <\/p>\n

Directing a probation report, Judge Baxter adjourned the case to July 22nd next for finalisation and remanded Deegan on continuing bail. She also directed that the \u20ac1,500 gesture of remorse should be given to garda\u00ed for transmission to the Mater Hospital. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who punched broadcaster Brendan Courtney several times voluntarily contacted garda\u00ed to tell him he had been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[55232,615,61,60,43,6085],"class_list":["post-341445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-brendan-courtney","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341445","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=341445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}