A MAN serving a 13-year sentence for a violent sexual assault has been given another three years' jail for severely injuring a prison officer who wouldn't let him use the phone.
Stephen Phelan (23) of Poddle Park, Crumlin, was on "nearly 23-hour lock down" in Wheatfield Prison when he head-butted and repeatedly punched the officer, James Gibney, who had let him out of his cell to have a shower.
Phelan pleaded guilty in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the 2006 assault. In 2005, Phelan head-butted a prison officer during his trial because he wasn't allowed sit by the courtroom door.
Defence counsel Caroline Biggs said Phelan was annoyed as he felt his "listener" from the Samaritans had been made to leave his cell half an hour early.
She told Judge Desmond Hogan that Phelan had been exposed to "horrendous" violence all his life and had once seen his father kick his eight-month pregnant mother in the stomach. Judge Hogan gave him three additional years but suspended the final 18 months on strict conditions.
Phelan was convicted in 2005 of carrying out a series of burglaries during which he broke into a house and forced two men to try to have sex with a female house mate. In a 90-minute ordeal, he threatened to cut off body parts of the woman and the two men.
Phelan and an accomplice also burgled eight houses in the one-night rampage during which he cut five people. He stabbed one victim nine times.
The court heard that before the assault of Mr Gibney, the other prisoners on the wing had been locked down to allow Phelan clean out his cell and have a shower.
He was being escorted back to his cell by Mr Gibney when he asked if he could make a phone call. The officer said he would let him make one later, to which Phelan replied he was going to "kill an officer one of these days".
As he was about to walk into his cell he head-butted and punched Mr Gibney, who fell to the ground. He then repeatedly punched him in the face as he lay on the ground until he was pulled off by other officers.
Mr Gibney was admitted to hospital with a suspected broken nose. He said the incident had made it impossible for him to study for his degree in public administration and made him question his prison service career.