Offaly man appeals sentence for hitting taxi driver with plastic glass

A MAN with what his own barrister said was a “deplorable” track record was spared a spell in jail because his mother's evidence impressed Judge Kenneth Connolly.

Dean Hogan (28), with an address at Cloncollig, Tullamore, but who has been living in Dublin, was appealing against the severity of a sentence which had been imposed on him in the District Court.

Mr Hogan had been sentenced to three months in prison, with another three months subsequently added, for assaulting a taxi driver with a plastic pint glass. He pleaded guilty to assaulting Babtunde Lawai, causing him harm, at Church Street, Tullamore.

Detective Garda Adrian Hanley told the court that on May 10, 2023 at about 11.30pm or 12 midnight a taxi picked up passengers at the Omiya Bar in Tullamore and Dean Hogan got in the back of the seven-seater vehicle.

He had a pint glass of alcohol which was not allowed in the taxi. The taxi travelled about 300 metres and the driver stopped and opened the door, asking Mr Hogan to leave. Mr Lawai was hit on the head with the plastic glass, resulting in a cut, and a “punch or two” was thrown.

Detective Garda Hanley said the injured party went down to the garda station and reported the matter and when gardai went to the scene Dean Hogan was still there.

The next morning when Mr Hogan was interviewed he said he did not remember a lot of what happened but once he was shown CCTV footage he accepted what he had done and apologised. Mr Hogan paid €450 in compensation, €350 for a watch Mr Lawai had lost during the incident, and €100 for damage to the taxi driver's clothes.

In a victim impact statement the driver said his family had been afraid any time he needed to go out to work at night after the assault.

Judge Kelleher heard the man had 34 previous convictions, 14 of which were for public order offences, along with two for assault, three for drugs possession and a number of others.

Sandra Mahon, Offaly state solicitor, said there were two outstanding sentences relating to Mr Hogan, including one for an assault for which the appellant had paid full compensation.

The man had served some of the other sentence, which was imposed for causing criminal damage but Judge Kelleher noted he was not long out of prison before committing the offence currently before the court.

Detective Garda Hanley told the court that intoxication was the basis of a lot of Mr Hogan's convictions and there tended not to be too many incidents when he was not drinking.

Called to give evidence by defence counsel Kieran Collins, Mr Hogan said he had moved to Dublin from Tullamore, was with his partner of four years, was working as a forklift driver and was sober.

A father of four children, two of them were with his partner and he was paying maintenance for two others.

He hoped he would not be sent to prison. “It's set me back to square one, no job,” he remarked.

He also said he had left the residential unit of an addiction centre because there were others in there with drugs and phones.

Mr Hogan's mother gave evidence that her son had turned his life around in the previous year-and-a-half and he rang her every day. He had previously been in an awful place with drink and drugs and had also suffered the loss of his father to suicide.

She said he had been very good in school and was also a very good footballer when he was younger.

Judge Kelleher said it was a very difficult matter for the court to deal with because Mr Hogan had been a horrible role model for his children.

His mother's evidence was the only thing that was staying his hand from putting the man behind bars so he was suspending the remainder of the sentence for 12 months on condition Mr Hogan pay €500 compensation to the taxi driver and observe a curfew from 9pm to 5am seven days a week, 365 days a year, save for medical emergencies or work reasons.