A father (30) who assaulted his three young children after he drank almost half a bottle of vodka has been jailed for two years.
He was heard shouting when gardaí arrived at his door in response to a report of domestic disturbance at the house in north Dublin in February last year.
Inside, gardaí found a one-year-old girl and a four-month-old baby crying in the living room. The younger child had a bruise on her chest like the palm print of a hand.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said there was no one else in the house. A search by gardaí revealed his three year old son lying on a bed upstairs, crying. His nose was bleeding and he had a lump on his forehead. "Daddy hit me," he told gardaí when they asked him what had happened to him.
Garda Dave Pidgeon said that when he asked the defendant why his son was injured he replied: "It's my fault. I hit him. I bashed him, I bloody mutilated him."
Gda Pidgeon said he appeared very upset and distressed at this stage. Gardaí also smelled alcohol on his breath and found a bottle of vodka in the kitchen.
The children's mother, who had left them in his care when she went to the city centre on business that morning, came back while gardaí were in the house. She confirmed that there were no injuries to the children when she left.
Medical examinations revealed that the four month old girl had bled from the brain and had bruises on her chest and arms. The one-year-old girl and her brother also bore bruising from an assault. None of the injuries were permanent.
Mr Shane Murphy SC, for the defendant, told Judge Hogan his client was a man who suffered from alcoholism and depression. He had no previous convictions and was not a violent man. Mr Murphy said his client was extremely remorseful about his actions that day and took full responsibility for what had happened.
He also fully accepted that he needed to be punished and had gone into custody last November on his own request. While in custody he had also begun to address his alcoholism.
Judge Hogan acknolwedged all the factors in the case and suspended the last 12 months of the sentence for a period of four years.