Man faces €90,000 damages and legal bill over assault carried out when he was 16

A man who, as a schoolboy, punched and headbutted another teenager at a Halloween Party in south Co Dublin has been ordered to pay the victim more than €52,000 in damages.

Zachary Kelly (23), of Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, was also directed by Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain in the Circuit Civil Court to pay the legal costs of former Terenure College student Sean Holmes, who suffered a broken nose and concussion in what he described as an attack that came “out of nowhere”.

The court heard that Mr Kelly’s mother Aideen, in an attempt to settle the €60,000 damages claim against her son, sent an apology and a €30 Marks and Spencer voucher to Mr Holmes’s parents, Alan and Monica, who returned it to her.

Barrister John Nolan told the court that Ms Kelly “apologised for the actions of her son” and that her family does not condone physical violence in any form.

Bryan Dobson: ‘Suddenly I was on the wrong side of the police line ... these fellas came after me into a forest’

---

I spent my maternity leave in a chemo chair. Then I got a letter telling me to go back to work

---

Trump’s week in court: Gasps and a pick-up in pace as Hope Hicks is called

---

The Croke Park effect: ‘It was one of the very few times I cried during the opposition anthem’

---

Mr Nolan appeared for Mr Holmes (23), a trainee accountant, of Willowdale, Orwell Park, Rathgar. He told the court that his client attended a Halloween party on Church Road, Killiney, on October 31st, 2016, and that the assault happened just before midnight.

He said Mr Holmes was punched in the eye by Mr Kelly and was then struck by what he could only describe as a haymaker of a headbutt, which caused serious injuries that required two separate surgeries on his nose.

“He will also have to face further surgery,” the barrister said.

Mr Holmes told Judge Ni Chulachain he had never met Mr Kelly before the assault and had not provoked him.

He said he still suffers breathing difficulties and headaches and was very conscious of a resulting lump on his nose. He said he uses a nasal spray several times a week and his nose now becomes stuffed up very easily now. He still suffers from spontaneous nose bleeds.

His father, Alan, said he and his wife, Monica, collected Seán and brought him home. He was taken to a clinic the following day where it was revealed that his nose was broken.

“He was covered in blood when we saw him just before the guards arriving at the house,” Alan Holmes said.

Following brief evidence from a number of then-schoolboys who were at the party, Mr Kelly said the majority of the partygoers were in a front garden and he punched Seán Holmes in the head after being called names by him when they accidentally brushed shoulders.

“I felt threatened and I reacted and hit him with my left hand. Friends broke it up and we went inside. I did not headbutt him,” he told the court.

He said he was escorted off the premises by the owner of the house and the party was abandoned after gardaí were called.

Judge Ni Chulachain refused to allow a number of allegations to be levelled at Mr Holmes by Mr Kelly and other defence witnesses on the grounds that they were not put to him while he was under cross-examination and was not given an opportunity to rebut them.

The judge said Mr Kelly admitted in his evidence that he punched Mr Holmes in the face and she accepted the evidence of Mr Holmes that the headbutt had immediately followed.

Judge Ni Chulachain said she was taking into consideration that it was not a premeditated assault and there were criminal proceedings.

She assessed general damages for personal injury at €40,000 and added a further award of €12,449 for special damages to date and into the future. She also awarded Mr Holmes his legal costs.

Taken together with his own legal costs, the court Mr Kelly faces a total bill of more than €90,000 for an assault he committed as a 16-year-old schoolboy.