A garda has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after he admitted assaulting a man in Cork city while he was off duty almost two years ago.
Garda Dean Foley, who is from Blarney and stationed in Bantry in Co Cork, has become the first garda to receive a custodial sentence since the establishment of the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission in 2007.
12 months of his 18-month prison sentence were suspended.
Dean Foley was on the Grand Parade, Cork city centre, at around 11pm on the night of 12 September, 2009.
He was off duty and was with his brother, Travis.
Stephen Gerard Murphy from Grenagh, Co Cork, was there too.
He had been drinking in a nearby pub and left to get a taxi home when he felt himself getting intoxicated.
Mr Murphy told Cork Circuit Criminal Court there was an exchange on the street between himself and the Foley brothers and he described Travis Foley's brightly-coloured top as ‘a gay shirt’.
He said he was beaten as he got into a taxi and next remembered waking up in hospital with bleeding on the brain, a broken nose, broken bones in his face and a few broken teeth.
An independent witness, Charles Wilkinson, described to the court how Mr Murphy had been ‘knocked clean off his feet to the ground’ after he was punched in the face.
He said Mr Murphy was unconscious, while the Foleys walked away.
Dean Foley pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm.
Today he cried in the witness box as he apologised, and he accepted that he only had himself to blame for the position he is now in.
He described the fortnight he had spent on remand in prison as a terrifying experience. Of the assault, he said it was something he had never done before and would never do again.
He begged for leniency.
Dean Foley also brought compensation to court which was described as ‘substantial’, but no figure was given.
Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin said Mr Murphy had been given an unmerciful beating.
He said he appreciated Dean Foley's career was at risk, but he didn't think he could dispose of the matter without imposing a jail sentence.
He sentenced Dean Foley to 18 months in prison, with the final 12 months suspended.
However, he also agreed to a defence application to re-enter the case for tomorrow to hear further evidence in mitigation, but he said his sentence stood until then.
Dean Foley is the first garda to be given a jail sentence since the establishment in 2007 of the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission, which investigated this case.
