Courts / Dublin / Report
Man sentenced to 2.5 years over Dale Creighton assault
Summary
In a Central Criminal Court hearing on 19 October 2015, James O'Brien, aged 22, was sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment for the assault that caused the death of 20‑year‑old Dale Creighton. O'Brien pleaded guilty in June and the court found that he punched and kicked Creighton on a footbridge in Tallaght on New Year's Day, an attack that lasted about one and a half minutes. The sentence includes eighteen months suspended, leaving a custodial term of one year and a half. The court noted O'Brien's guilty plea, remorse, lack of prior convictions and efforts to rehabilitate as mitigating factors. The case also involved seven other Dubliners charged in connection with Creighton's death, but the summary focuses on O'Brien's individual sentence as stated in the article.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: Man sentenced to 2.5 years over Dale Creighton assault. Procedural stage: sentence
When:
- New Year's Day Incident
- New Year's Eve Other
- 2015-10-19 Publication
Case subjects
Accused
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: At today's sentence hearing, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy told the court that, on New Year's Eve last year, Mr Creighton was attending a house party, which he left at 3am.
Accused
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: She also said that the genuineness of his remorse is "tempered by the inaccurate information he gave to gardai regarding his injuries and his presence at the scene." The mitigating factors in considering Mr O'Brien's sentence were his guilty plea, his remorse, his lack of previous convictions and his efforts to rehabilitate, the court heard.
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