CITY TRIBUNE
Good Samaritan had part of skull removed after ‘one punch’ assault
A barman had a quarter of his skull surgically removed to allow his brain to swell – to minimise brain damage – after he was assaulted while trying to protect a young woman on the street.
Wesley Wilders told Galway Circuit Criminal Court he had a great job in Busker Browne’s, had a lovely girlfriend, was about to choose which college course to do, and was looking forward to celebrating his 25th birthday when his whole life was suddenly turned upside down by an unprovoked, one-punch assault.
He said he could not forgive Sultan Sarumi (19), who had ruined his life and left him with life-threatening injuries.
Sarumi, with addresses in Gleann Rua, Ballybane, and Harold’s Cross, Dublin, pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Wilders, causing him harm, at Bohermore on October 7 last year.
Sergeant Noel Sweeney said the accused fled the scene after the assault and did everything he could to evade Gardai on the night.
Mr Wilders hit his head on the ground following the punch and lost consciousness at the scene.
Witnesses said the accused punched him after he came to the aid of a girl who had been confronted by a group of teens.
“After seeing the victim lying on the ground, he (Sarumi) fled the scene without any regard for the man, who suffered serious life- threatening injuries,” Sergeant Sweeney said.
Gardai had to launch an extensive search on the night to locate the culprit. Sgt Sweeney said that following his arrest, Sarumi showed no remorse and tried to blame the victim.
The sergeant said Mr Wilders suffered a fracture to his skull and had spent six weeks in Beaumont Hospital before being transferred to Sligo General Hospital.
He said the victim had a large section of his skull removed to allow his brain to swell in the immediate aftermath and a titanium plate was fitted to seal the area this September.
A medical report handed into court, stated Mr Wilders had a large visible scar across his skull as a result of the operation. His speech is now sometimes slurred and his gait unsteady due to right-side weakness in his body.
Sgt Sweeney said Sarumi was well-known to Gardai in Galway over the years and he had seven previous convictions for drug dealing, criminal damage, robberies, and one for another serious assault for which he received a three-month prison term last April.
Defence barrister, Garry McDonald said Sarumi had come to Ireland from Nigeria when he was nine years old and was estranged from his family. He said his client had expressed remorse during his final Garda interview.
Mr Wilders, who is a native of Strandhill, Sligo, read his own victim impact statement into evidence.
He became emotional on several occasions in the witness box.
“All I was trying to do was help a lady. I ended up in ICU fighting for my life and was in a coma for two weeks. I couldn’t talk or move or recognise anyone. I went down to seven-and-a-half stone.
“I’m afraid all the time now. My mother had to give up her job to mind me. I broke up with my girlfriend. I cannot work anymore. I’m so afraid to go outside the house. All my past memories are gone.
“I don’t know if I will ever recover because my right side is so weak. I don’t know if I will ever get back to the way I was before,” he sobbed.
Addressing the accused, he said: “I really hope you do not hurt anyone else like you have hurt me. You will never realise the suffering you have put me through. How can I forgive?” he said.
Mr Wilders explained he now lived in a constant state of fear, even while in his own home.
Judge Rory McCabe said the offence carried a maximum five-year sentence and given Sarumi’s extensive range of previous convictions, some of which involved violence, the headline sentence in this case, he said, was five years.
The judge noted from a prison governor’s report, that Sarumi had been in an altercation with other prisoners while awaiting sentence and his involvement with the probation service had been superficial.
The early plea of guilty, he said, was a mitigating factor because it had spared the victim the trauma of having to give evidence at a trial.
Noting Sarumi was deemed by the probation service to be at a moderately high risk of reoffending, Judge McCabe said the appropriate sentence was three years and six months with the final six months suspended for 12 months.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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