Man received suspended sentence after assault conviction

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

A man who cannot be named for legal reasons was found guilty of assault causing harm and received a suspended jail sentence. He was acquitted of assault causing serious harm following a direction by the judge.

He had come before the Circuit Criminal Court on the two charges. He was accused of striking another person in the head with a bar stool at licensed premises in 2016. The Director of Public Prosecutions said the injured person sustained injuries including a fractured eye socket.

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Circuit Court judge’s decision to exclude a medical certificate concerning the alleged eye injury. The proceedings were reported on 3 November 2021.

The DPP had sought to introduce the consultant ophthalmic surgeon’s certificate under section 25 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. The defence objected because the doctor had not personally seen the injured person and said the certificate was based on hospital clinical notes. The trial judge excluded it as inadmissible hearsay.

The DPP referred a question of law to the Court of Appeal, which held that the trial judge had been incorrect. The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal because the matter raised an issue of public importance. Giving its decision, Mr Justice Woulfe said the Court of Appeal had failed to give adequate consideration to the nature of the certificate; the doctor could not attest to the truth of another practitioner’s recorded examination findings.