A man whose drug and alcohol-fuelled attack left a taxi-driver living on disability allowance has been given nine years in consecutive sentences for the assault and for thefts from psychiatric patients.
Denis Creagh (25), Coolock Village, Coolock, Dublin, had consumed cannabis and alcohol before he launched his attack on Terry Moloney after calling him a "filthy pig" because he wasn't happy with the fare.
He kicked Mr Moloney in the head and stomach outside St Brendan's Church in Coolock. When Mr Moloney came around after falling to the ground unconscious, he found Creagh leaning over him and biting his cheek.
The force of the bite cracked the teeth in Mr Moloney's mouth and when Creagh saw him get up he returned and punched him again. The incident was witnessed by Fr Frank Corry of St Brendan's Church.
Mr Moloney, who suffered a fractured skull and had 12 teeth knocked out, was detained for three weeks in Beaumont Hospital and hasn't worked as a taxi-driver since. A medical report said serious harm had been caused to him and that he temporarily lost some of his brain function.
Creagh pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to intentionally or recklessly causing Mr Moloney serious harm on June 12th, 2004.
Creagh told Judge Katherine Delahunt: "That night should never have happened and it came at a time when I was not myself." He said his stepfather, who he had thought was his biological father until he was 12 years old, had died three weeks previously.
"I don't think Mr Moloney or anyone deserves that. I apologise to him, his family and friends."
Creagh also pleaded guilty to theft with an accomplice of two mobile phones, €100 and a wallet from psychiatric patients' private rooms at St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, on September 12th, 2006.
Judge Delahunt imposed consecutive sentences of seven years for the assault on Mr Moloney and two years for the thefts. She suspended the final two years on conditions.
Judge Delahunt was told by Isobel Kennedy SC, defending that Creagh was devastated when he learnt his stepfather was not his biological father. He was equally affected by the man's death from cancer and had to take a month off work.
Ms Kennedy said Creagh's mother threw him out of the family home shortly after the assault because of his drug abuse but he was now drug free after undergoing a detoxification programme in custody.
Det Garda Shane Davern told Ronan Kennedy, prosecuting, that Mr Moloney had driven Creagh, his girlfriend and another man, who were all "intoxicated to some degree", to Coolock from a pub and asked for a €12 fare.
Creagh's girlfriend gave him €5 but the two men claimed neither of them had the rest. Mr Moloney told them to "come on" because he was "very, very busy". He then noticed that the woman was trying to get out of the taxi but there was a problem with her door so he got out to help her. Creagh got out as well and called him a "filthy pig" before he launched his attack.