Limerick hurler Kyle Hayes has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence after being convicted last December of two counts of violent disorder.
The 25-year-old has also been told to pay €10,000 in compensation to a man who suffered serious facial injuries during incidents inside and outside a Limerick nightclub in 2019.
Judge Dermot Sheehan said today at Limerick Circuit Court that the violence engaged in by Kyle Hayes in the early hours of 28 October, 2019, was "dangerous and significant" and said that none of the incidents which were the subject of a trial last year would have happened without Kyle Hayes.
He imposed a two-year prison sentence for an incident of violent disorder outside the Icon Nightclub on Upper Denmark Street in Limerick, and an 18-month sentence for violent disorder inside the nightclub.
He suspended both for two years, ordering Kyle Hayes to keep the peace for that time.
Kyle Hayes, with an address at Ballyashea, Kildimo, Co Limerick had pleaded not guilty to one count of assault causing harm to Cillian McCarthy, 24, outside the Icon nighclub in Limerick on 28 October 2019, as well as to two counts of violent disorder on the same date, inside and outside the nightclub.
He was found guilty last December by a jury of the two counts of violent disorder but not guilty of the assault.
The trial heard that Cillian McCarthy was "set upon" in the nightclub after Kyle Hayes took exception to Mr McCarthy talking to two women, with whom Mr Hayes was acquainted, and that several punches were thrown. It also heard that Mr McCarthy was attacked outside the nightclub on the street and seen by two gardaí being kicked and punched, while on the ground.
During the trial last year, Cillian McCarthy said Kyle Hayes approached him and his friend, Craig Cosgrave, in the bar and warned them to "stay the f… away" from the two females, became aggressive and shouted "do you know who the f… I am". He said that, later, another man not before the court threw the first punch at him, hitting him in his right eye, and then this other man and Kyle Hayes were punching him "continuously" on the head.
Mr McCarthy said in court last year that, when he left the nightclub in a bruised and bloodied state, he was pursued by Kyle Hayes and others and the latter then began throwing punches at him and Craig Cosgrave. He was knocked to the ground, he said, and "attacked and stamped on" by Kyle Hayes and others and he sustained 20 punches or kicks during this time.
He suffered a fractured eye socket as a result of the assault, he said.
In an interview with gardaí conducted in January of 2020, Kyle Hayes said that what Mr McCarthy alleged in a garda statement "did not happen" and he denied that he was part of a group who attacked Mr McCarthy. He said he ran away from gardaí on the night because they started roaring at him, having picked him out because they knew his face.
In his victim impact statement read in court in January, Cillian McCarthy said he had been an "easy going, hard working," person who enjoyed life, prior to the incidents of 2019. All this changed after that night and he had been left terrified after being attacked. He was afraid to go socialising again in Limerick in case he met the people responsible.
At the sentencing hearing in January, Limerick senior hurling manager John Kiely told the judge that Kyle Hayes had "learnt his lesson" and matured considerably since the incidents. He described his hurler's behaviour at the time of the incidents as "very disappointing" and said he did not condone what happened, but said that Kyle Hayes was "somebody I trust," with a very strong work ethic.
Mr Kiely said in January that Kyle Hayes telephoned him within 24 hours of the incidents at the nightclub and told him what happened. He said Hayes had already "paid a heavy price" because of the media attention around the case and that he believed the defendant had "taken responsibility for his actions".
Judge Dermot Sheehan said today that Cillian McCarthy was 20 at the time of the incidents and had gone out for a night with his friend, and they ended up in Smyth's Bar, which was part of the same building as the Icon Nightclub.
They were talking to two women and Kyle Hayes and another man approached them and Kyle Hayes told him to "stay away from the girls" and his motivation for saying this seemed to have been that one of the girls had, around that time, been seeing a friend of his.
Kyle Hayes shouted at Cillian McCarthy, "do you know who the f… I am" and Mr McCarthy walked away and went upstairs to the nightclub.
On the dancefloor, he met with the same two young women but did not get a chance to engage in any dancing, the judge said, because Kyle Hayes was there and was "very aggressive and abusive".
Another man threw the first punch at Cillian McCarthy and then Kyle Hayes punched him on the head and the face. The events on the dancefloor were captured on CCTV and this was the first incident of violent disorder.
The violence lasted only a few seconds but caused a large number of people to clear the dancefloor, the judge said, and Cillian McCarthy was brought downstairs by a security man and went outside. There was blood coming from his eye and the eye area was swollen.
He was followed outside by Kyle Hayes and another man, the judge recalled, and Kyle Hayes told him "he would dig the head" off him.
The second violent disorder incident happened when Cillian McCarthy's friend emerged from the nightclub and Kyle Hayes and his friend went up to him and attacked him. Cillian McCarthy tried to break this up and described in court, during the trial, being dragged and tripped and ending up on the ground. He protected his head with his hands but was punched and kicked while on the ground. This went on for three or four minutes, before a squad car arrived.
The jury’s verdict, Judge Sheehan said, was that Kyle Hayes was not directly involved in the attack on Cillian McCarthy on the street but the evidence of the gardaí was that Kyle Hayes was one of a group of men attacking Cillian’s friend on the ground, punching and kicking him.
Kyle Hayes was arrested and interviewed and denied to gardaí being involved in the incidents.
Judge Sheehan said it was a detective’s evidence that the "catalyst" for all of the incidents was that Kyle Hayes felt he could police people talking to the two women whom he knew.
The incidents had a "profound effect" on Cillian McCarthy and his family, the judge said. He had a fear of going back to socialise in the city, couldn’t drive at night-time because the eye injury resulted in double vision in the headlights, and was afraid to meet the people involved in the incidents. He missed work for some months and the reaction to the incidents on social media and elsewhere led to him feeling hurt and ashamed.
The court had heard character evidence from John Kiely in January, the judge recalled, and the Limerick manager had known Kyle Hayes for seven years and also had many years’ experience as a teacher and school principal.
Mr Kiely was "not impressed" by Mr Hayes’s conduct on the date in question, the judge recalled, but his impression of Kyle Hayes was of a trustworthy person with a strong work ethic, with strong leadership qualities. The accused had "matured" since 2019, Mr Kiely felt, and was a leader within the group of Limerick hurlers.
The court had also received testimonies from Mr Hayes’s boss, from the University of Limerick Kemmy School of Business where the accused graduated with a degree in business in 2020, and from horse trainer Jim Bolger who said he had helped to raise substantial funds for cancer research.
Judge Sheehan said: "I cannot ignore Kyle Hayes’s role in the two incidents of violent disorder" and said he was the "instigator" of the incident in the nightclub and had been described as "the main culprit" in the incident on the street. "Kyle Hayes must have substantial culpability for both incidents of violent disorder and the consequences for Cillian McCarthy."
He said the "violence of Kyle Hayes was dangerous and significant" and that "none of this would have happened but for Kyle Hayes".
In mitigation, he said Kyle Hayes was a young man, aged 21 at the time of the offences, and had no previous convictions. He is in full-time employment and working hard to become a useful member of society and is a successful sportsman with considerable leadership skills. "I believe he’s remorseful," the judge said.
He imposed an 18-month prison sentence for the incident inside the nightclub and a two-year sentence for the incident on the street, the sentences to run concurrently.
However, he said that given the accused’s age, his previous record and the fact that he has proven himself since, it was not appropriate and would not benefit society to impose an immediate custodial sentence.
He suspended the sentences for two years, ordering Kyle Hayes to keep the peace during that time. As Cillian McCarthy had ended up with "significant injuries" as a result of the incidents, he directed Kyle Hayes to pay €10,000 in compensation to Mr McCarthy.
Neither Mr Hayes or Mr McCarthy made any comment to reporters as they left the courthouse in Limerick.
