Leon Kavanagh receives suspended sentence after garda assault

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Leon Kavanagh received sentences totalling three years, suspended in full, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 21 December 2017 after assaulting Garda Paula Carter. Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain imposed the sentence on strict conditions, including alcohol, offending behaviour and anger management work.

Kavanagh had pleaded guilty. The proceedings were reported on 22 December 2017.

The assault took place in Clarehall, Dublin, on 14 February 2015, when Kavanagh was 17. Garda Carter and her colleague, Garda David Egan, were looking for a missing 13-year-old boy who was believed to be at a house party.

The court heard that Garda Carter felt Kavanagh pull her back by her fleece and saw her colleague struggling with other youths. When she went to Garda Egan’s assistance, Kavanagh pushed her to the ground with significant force. She struck her head on the footpath and lost consciousness; he then kicked her several times.

Garda Carter received a stitch to a cut at the back of her head and suffered concussion, bruising to her legs, pain in her neck and back, and a headache. The court heard that she subsequently experienced anxiety when dealing with the public, particularly large groups of young males.

The judge noted that Kavanagh had been very aggressive and highly intoxicated, but that the assault was not premeditated, no weapon was used and he was not the only person involved. She considered his youth at the time, his subsequent courses and full-time employment, his relatively early guilty plea and a letter of remorse.