A man who attacked a pub customer with a metal bar following a family feud has been given a two-year suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Stephen Bergin and another man beat their victim in front of other customers and later attacked him in a storeroom.
Judge Frank O'Donnell described the men as thugs and said society broke down if such attacks were allowed to happen. Bergin, Kilbarrin Road, Coolock, and Stephen Haughey, Edenmore Gardens, Raheny, pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm at the Pebble Beach pub in Clontarf on June 14th, 1997.
Garda John Murphy said Mr Robert Lillis was drinking with friends in the pub when he was approached by a married couple. They mentioned a dispute Mr Lillis had with their son but he refused to make up. The couple left the pub and later the husband returned, accompanied by Bergin and Haughey, who were related to him through marriage.
Bergin and Haughey attacked Mr Lillis, beating him over the head with metal bars and kicking him and punching him on the ground when he fell. The manager of the bar directed Mr Lillis to a storeroom and evicted the assailants. They ran down a side lane and sneaked into the storeroom where they began beating Mr Lillis again. They later made a full confession to gardai.
Judge O'Donnell said the victim had to get three stitches in the head and four in the hand. He gave Bergin a two-year suspended sentence and said the court would have no hesitation in jailing him if he re-offended. He ordered £1,000 compensation to be paid to Mr Lillis and adjourned sentencing of Haughey until March 23rd.