Scott Cunningham given four and a half years with final 18 months suspended
This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.
Judge Martin Nolan gave Scott Cunningham four and a half years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for burglary and assault causing harm, suspending the final 18 months. The proceedings were reported on 22 July 2015.
He pleaded guilty to burglary and taking a mobile phone, and to assault causing harm to Felipe Loughran. The burglary and phone theft happened at Beaumont Road, Beaumont on 27 January 2014. The assault occurred on Westmoreland Street on 8 September 2014.
Gardaí tracked the stolen phone to Scott Cunningham’s home using Find my iPhone. A search found him sleeping in his bedroom alongside another youth, with the phone concealed beneath mattresses.
The report said Calvin Cunningham punched Felipe Loughran before Scott Cunningham brought him to the ground and stamped on his head three times. Felipe Loughran lost consciousness and received hospital treatment for a broken nose and an eye swollen enough to prevent him seeing through it for several days.
Garda Frank Johnson said Scott Cunningham claimed after his arrest that he was acting in self-defence because Felipe Loughran had attacked his brother. Felipe Loughran’s victim impact report described anxiety about going into town.
Judge Martin Nolan called the assault vicious but accepted that Scott Cunningham had not led the burglary. Scott Cunningham had 15 previous convictions, including a burglary conviction.
Defence barrister Anne Marie Lawlor said Scott Cunningham had received ADHD medication from the age of six but stopped taking it because of health complications. She said his father had raised him, his mother had a drug addiction, and he had misused prescribed and illegal drugs. He was smoking heroin at the time, she said.
Calvin Cunningham had admitted his involvement in the assault and was awaiting sentencing before Judge Patricia Ryan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.