TWO DUBLIN men whose horrific assault on a Norwegian tourist has left him with severe head injuries and a serious speech impediment have been jailed for seven and six years.
Andreas Nagelsett (35), a former school teacher, is currently only able to communicate with his young daughter for one hour a day before he is left exhausted.
Garda Wayne Kelly told Judge Katherine Delahunt that he was repatriated by air ambulance after his head was repeatedly stamped on by a drunken Dublin mob and he refuses to talk about the attack on March 4th, 2007.
Christopher Burgess (19), Templeview Avenue, Clarehall, was given a seven-year sentence and Leonard Finnegan (20), Harold's Cross Road, a six-year term. Both pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Mr Nagelsett, causing him serious harm, at Great Strand Street.
"This was a violent unprovoked assault," Judge Delahunt said. "You have left this young man, in the prime of his life, with significant brain damage and ongoing trauma."
Referring to Burgess's homelessness and drug abuse, she said the attack had an "inevitability" about it and described him as "a car crash waiting to happen".
Finnegan also pleaded guilty to assaulting Mats Haaland and Per Johansen on the same occasion.
Burgess was further sentenced to two years for a mobile phone robbery at Gloucester Place on May 31st, 2006, and to three years for smashing a bottle over the head of Ciaran Farron on December 10th, 2006, at Eden Quay after asking him for a cigarette.
Burgess had 18 previous convictions and Finnegan had 15. Finnegan is serving a two-year sentence imposed last October for robbing a bicycle and mobile phone from two children. Burgess has been held in custody since the attack on Mr Nagelsett.
Judge Delahunt suspended the final year of both sentences.
Gda Kelly told prosecuting counsel, Roisin Lacey, that the "horrific attack has left Mr Nagelsett mentally scarred for the rest of his life". Gda Kelly said Burgess admitted stamping on Mr Nagelsett's head when arrested and said his actions were "a bit drastic".
Finnegan also admitted his role and after viewing the CCTV footage he told gardaí: "I feel like a scumbag".
Gda Kelly said that the three Norwegian men had spent the day in a number of pubs before encountering a group of young men on Great Strand Street, near the city centre. Mr Nagelsett, who was in good spirits, exchanged some words with the group and was pushed by one of them. Mr Haaland stood between them and told the youth they did not want a fight.
Gda Kelly said Mr Haaland remembers nothing else but thinks he must have been hit as the next thing he recalled was lying in the gutter with Mr Nagelsett's head in his hands.
Cathal Brennan was coming out of a Spar shop nearby when he witnessed the assault in progress and said there up to five aggressors attacking three men.
Gda Kelly said Mr Brennan told gardaí he saw Burgess stamping on Mr Nagelsett's head as hard as he could four or five times as he lay motionless on the ground.
Mr Nagelsett was taken to hospital and treated for serious head injuries. His airway was compromised by swelling and blood in his nose and throat and he had been left with ongoing serious speech difficulties.
He had been unable to speak until recently due to his injuries and spends an hour a day speaking to his young daughter which leaves him exhausted. He has also been out of work.