A woman who broke the jaw of a Mountjoy Prison officer has had her sentence for the attack and two drug dealing offences adjourned by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Linda Dunne (29), of Carnlough Road, Cabra, a single mother of three, pleaded guilty a year ago to recklessly assaulting a prison officer, Ms Helena Considine, in Mountjoy Jail on October 9th, 1999. This case has been adjourned several times previously.
She has also admitted selling heroin on January 3rd and January 15th, 2002 outside the drug treatment centre in Pearse Street.
Judge Frank O'Donnell told Dunne that if he was to sentence her at this stage it would be custodial and she was to be under no misapprehension about that. He directed she continue signing on three times weekly at a Garda station and under urine analysis.
Mr Luigi Rea BL, defence counsel, pleaded that Dunne should be rewarded by the court as she had transformed herself and for the first time impressed the gardaí and the probation service. She was determined to leave the drug dealing behind her and to make a new life for herself.
Dunne told Judge O'Donnell at an earlier hearing that the incident in which Ms Considine's jaw was broken had been "a genuine accident". She said she was extremely sorry when she heard that her punch had broken the officer's jaw.
Detective Garda Adrian Murray said Dunne had punched Ms Considine under the chin while she was being escorted back to the main buildings of Mountjoy after being allowed to visit her family in an "outpost" within the prison premises.