Mother jailed for 18 months over assault with broom handle

A mother of three has been jailed for 18 months for taking part in a “vicious” assault where five people attacked the victim with a crutch and a broom handle.

Maxine Spence (37) and four others went to a woman's house in Inchicore, Dublin over an allegation that the owner's son had taken a mobile phone from a friend of Ms Spence's son.

The group, including two juveniles, demanded the phone be returned or €100 paid. Counsel for Spence said “things got out of hand” and Spence began attacking the victim with a brush.

Spence and the others then began assaulting, kicking and punching the woman and someone else used a crutch which was in the house to attack her.

Spence, of Arbour Hill, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to aggravated burglary and assault causing harm at the Inchicore house on September 8th, 2010.

Judge Martin Nolan said Spence had invaded someone else's house and viciously attacked the victim.

He suspended the last three and a half years of a five-year prison term on condition that Spence keeps the peace for that period. He said he was being lenient because her children needed their mother.

Garda Colm Manning told Sinéad McMullan BL, prosecuting, that the victim's 3-year-old daughter had been upstairs in the house during the attack. He said the woman sustained cuts to the face and suffered swelling to her back, shoulder and eyes.

At one stage the victim offered the attackers €50 to stop the assault and leave. They took two mobile phones before leaving.

The court heard the victim has since made a full recovery.

Spence has seven previous convictions, including for theft and threatening and abusive behaviour.

Her barrister told the court that since the attack, Spence’s son Glen had died in a case of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome and Spence had gone off the rails and begun drinking heavily.

Keith Spencer BL said: “Her son’s death hit her like a freight train.” She had previously begun abusing heroin in 2010 after her sister took her own life.

Spence’s bail was revoked when she missed a court date for these offences. Counsel said that since going into custody his client had detoxed completely, adding that “above all she wants her children back”.

He told the court her own parents had substance abuse issues and that her late sister had looked after her in the context of this difficult upbringing.