Gang leader jailed for racially-motivated assault

The leader of a gang of youths who were involved in muggings and sometimes racially-motivated assaults around the city over the last number of years has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Tom Williams (20), Cluain Fada, Headford Road, actually received sentences totalling seven-and-a-half years at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last week, but the final four years were suspended on condition he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for five years on his release from prison.

Williams pleaded guilty at a previous court hearing to a charge of violent disorder, in that he along with three others acting together used or threatened to use violence in Eyre Square on May 4, 2018.

He also pleaded guilty to assaulting an Afghan national, causing him harm, on the same date.

Williams further pleaded guilty to robbing a mobile phone from another youth on March 14, 2018, and to assaulting the victim’s father when he asked Williams to return his son’s phone.

Sergeant Paul McNulty told the sentence hearing Williams was the leader of a gang which had no regard for law or order.

He said Williams and three others assaulted two young Afghan asylum seekers outside Cafe Express in Eyre Square at around 1.30pm on May 4, 2018.

“Tom Williams instigated the assault and oversaw it as his gang members carried it out,” Sgt McNulty said.

The victims later told Gardai they noticed a group of black males staring at them. The males called them terrorists and asked them what were they doing in this country.

One of the males, later identified from CCTV as Tom Williams, suddenly stuck one of the Afghan youths into the side of his head using his mobile phone as a weapon. The victim fell to the ground where he was punched and kicked by the gang.  A member of staff from a nearby cafe, who came to the victim’s aid, was punched into the face by another gang member.

Sgt McNulty said Eyre Square was packed with people at the time this vicious, unprovoked assault took place.

Garda Neil Lydon gave evidence Williams robbed a young boy of his mobile phone and rucksack in the Eyre Square shopping centre on March 14, 2018.

The victim was put in fear and he ran to the taxi rank where his father worked.

Garda Lydon said the victim’s father knew Williams’ father, who is also a taxi driver.

Later that evening the man went to a house where Williams was staying and asked for his son’s belongings.

Williams punched him a number of times in the head, face and body before hitting him across the head with a large salt shaker.

Garda Lydon said the man made an official complaint to him the next day.

“He was quite upset because in his culture, it’s very insulting for a young person to attack a man of his age,” Garda Lydon explained.

Garda Lydon said that neither the man nor his son wanted to give a victim impact statement.  He said the son continued to live in fear of the accused and the robbery and subsequent attack on his father had totally changed his life.

In reply to defence barrister, Conal McCarthy, Garda Lydon said he was not aware of Williams having any drink or drug problem.  He said the accused lived with his father in Cluain Fada, while his mother lived in Knocknacarra.

Sgt McNulty confirmed Williams had 33 previous convictions and was out on two separate sets of High Court bail for 18 other offences at the   time he committed the offences before the court.

He said the accused had two convictions for robberies, one for affray, one for the production of a weapon in the course of a dispute, four for assaults, and the rest for deception, possession of stolen property and drugs.

Sgt McNulty said he knew Williams since he was convicted of assaulting a Polish national when he was 13.

He said Williams was of Nigerian origin and was the leader of a gang of youths in the city who had no regard for the law.

Mr McCarthy said his client had been abusing alcohol and drugs for many years and he was intoxicated at the time of the assault on the taxi driver.

Sgt McNulty said that while he knew Williams for several years he was not aware he had a drink or drug addiction, as suggested by counsel.

Mr McCarthy said his client had also been the victim of racial abuse while in school.

Sgt McNulty was sceptical of this, pointing out that Williams was well over six feet tall since he was 13. “He’s a big lad,” he added.

Judge Rory McCabe said the latest probation report on Williams was very bleak, placing him at a high risk of reoffending and it left him with no option when imposing sentence but to discount any hope of rehabilitation.

For their role in the Eyre Square attacks, other gang members, Goodnews Onyenweson, received a four-year sentence with the final nine months suspended in May of last year, while Mourthadha Badiane received a suspended three-year sentence. A juvenile, who cannot be named, also received a suspended sentence.