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Man walks free after victim loses sense of taste and smell in assault
A man who caused a car salesman to lose his sense of taste and smell following a one-punch assault, walked free from court after paying his victim a substantial, undisclosed sum of money.
Judge Rory McCabe said he would not record a conviction against Erwin O’Toole (36), from Menlo, but instead bound him to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for 18 months in lieu of an 18-month prison sentence.
O’Toole pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court in March to assaulting Adrian Fahy (36), from Ballindooley, causing him harm at 4 Aces Casino, Dominick Street, on July 20, 2014.
Defence barrister, John Hogan BL, who represented O’Toole under the Free Legal Aid scheme, said at the time that while his client was pleading guilty to the assault he wanted an independent medical assessment of the injured party’s injuries.
Mr Hogan said two medical reports for the prosecution stated the victim had lost his sense of taste and smell due to the attack and had also suffered irreparable nerve damage to the affected area.
The barrister applied to the court for an extension of the Free Legal Aid certificate so that his client could have another surgeon examine the victim’s scans after contending that the complaint of a loss of taste and smell was of a very subjective nature and based solely on one consultant reading a scan.
Prosecuting barrister, Conor Fahy objected to the application at the time. saying there were no grounds for the application apart from suspicion. He said the victim’s GP had confirmed he had perfect taste and smell prior to the assault.
Judge McCabe disagreed and he extended the Free Legal Aid certificate to cover the cost of getting another surgeon to examine the scan and provide a report.
Sentence was adjourned to June and then again to last week to await the outcome of the medical findings.
Mr Hogan informed the court that the defence would not be pursuing the medical reports any further.
He said his client had accepted his culpability “100%”, and was truly sorry for what he did.
Garda Evan McKenna told the hearing O’Toole came up behind Mr Fahy in the casino’s smoking area around 6am on the morning in question and struck him one blow on the back of the head with his fist.
The victim was rendered unconscious and was taken to UHG. He was treated for his injury and was released a few hours later.
He felt disorientated for a few days and went back to his GP complaining of headaches and difficulty chewing his food. It later transpired he had lost his sense of taste and smell as a result of the blow.
Garda McKenna confirmed a CT scan was normal. There was no evidence of a fracture or damage to the sinuses.
It did indicate, however, that the victim had suffered a brain trauma as the nerves which provide the sense of taste and smell were torn by the punch and would never recover.
Mr Fahy’s victim impact statement was read to the court.
It stated he remembered waking up in hospital and felt dazed and confused for a couple of days. He had lost his sense of taste and smell following the attack.
“I know he didn’t intend to cause the serious injury I received from the blow. I feel he has learnt his lesson and I do not want to see him go to jail,” the victim said in his statement.
Mr Hogan said the assault occurred following a complete misunderstanding on his client’s part about the sale of a car between the parties.
The barrister handed references from Councillor Padraig Conneely and David O’Donnell from Cancer Care West and from a building contractor into court.
He said his client came from a very decent family. He lived at home and had recently started a job in research and development. He had written a letter of apology to the victim last April in which he had expressed his deep remorse.
Mr Hogan informed the court his client had taken out a loan and had also received a loan from his mother in order to pay a substantial sum of money to the victim.
He asked the court not to reveal the amount involved in open court.
In reply to Judge McCabe, Mr Hogan said the compensation was already paid over to Mr Fahy and no further (civil) proceedings would issue against his client.
A very positive probation report on O’Toole was handed into court.
Judge McCabe said this was a drink-fuelled, unanticipated assault which may have had a foundation in some dispute or dissatisfaction over the purchase of a car.
Such disputes, he said, are usually resolved in civil courts and do not result in life-changing injury, as had happened in this case.
This, he said, had been a one-punch incident and there was little doubt O’Toole had no intention of harming his victim in the way he did.
He said O’Toole may have felt provoked but that was no defence and it was probably fuelled by alcohol.
The judge said the victim’s impact statement was “extraordinarily fair” towards the accused.
He noted O’Toole was genuinely remorseful and posed a low risk of reoffending.
The judge said the accused had compensated the victim to the satisfaction of the victim and taking his previous good record and genuine remorse into account, he said he would not record a conviction against him.
In lieu of an 18-month sentence, Judge McCabe gave O’Toole a conditional discharge, binding him to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for 18 months
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
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.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
