The Tempo man was ordered to pay £500 compensation to the victim
A 22-YEAR OLD TEMPO man who committed a ‘drink-fuelled’ assault has been given a 18 month probation order and told to pay £500 to his victim.
In the case heard at Enniskillen Magistrates Court the prosecutor explained that on September 7 2012 police received a report of an assault dating back to June 10 in the New Street area of Ederney. She told the court that at 1.30am the injured party was approached by the defendant Anthony Trainor, of Killyculla, who punched him a number of times in the face in an unprovoked attack.
The injured party sustained a fractured jaw and swelling to his face and had to go to Altnagelvin Hospital for treatment. Witnesses at the scene identified Trainor as the assailant.
When interviewed by police in March, 2013 Trainor denied being present at the scene or committing the assault. At a VIPER (Video Identification parade electronic recording) procedure on June 30 both independent witnesses identified Trainor again as the attacker.
In a second interview with police Trainor made no comment to questioning.
Defence barrister Steffan Rafferty said the attack was ‘not pleasant by any means’ and said there was little he could say in mitigation. He told the court that the attack was ‘drink-fuelled’, ‘stupid by his own admission’ and ‘very wrong’ and offered no excuse for the defendant’s actions.
Although the pre-sentence report indicated that Trainor showed somewhat limited remorse, Mr Rafferty told the court that the defendant was ‘very remorseful’, ‘regretful’ and ‘very apologetic’. “I suspect the reason it is unclear the level of remorse is because Mr Trainor cannot recall the incident,” explained the defence.
District judge Nigel Broderick noted that Trainor had a suspended sentence issued to him back in January 2013, but accepted as the previous incident dated back to 2012 it would not affect this.
Mr Rafferty explained that Trainor was trying to get his life ‘back on the straight and narrow’,was working full-time and had a long-term girlfriend.
The district judge said he was not entirely clear why the case had taken so long to come before the court , but noted the defendant was clearly a man who struggled with alcohol problems and anger management problems and unless these were addressed he could only see him re-offending.
He issued the probation order under the condition that Trainor engage fully with alcohol/drug counselling and any other programmes dictated by the probation service.
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