Two robbers who broke into a man’s home and beat him with a hammer while his toddler son slept upstairs have been jailed.
The victim, Stefan Hoey, was kicked, punched and hammered on the head before being knocked unconscious.
The attack took place at his home in Swords in the early hours of April 14, 2018, while he was watching TV with his wife.
Alan Stafford (37), of St Cronan’s View, Swords, and Richard Shaw (36), of Wellview Grove, Mulhuddart, were sentenced yesterday to two years in prison in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for what the judge said was a “very serious ” was attack.
Det Gda Suzanne Laffin, of Swords Garda station, told the court that Mr Hoey was at home with his wife, Amy, when she received a call at approximately 1am from Shaw demanding to speak to her husband. .
The court heard that there was “some degree of conflict” between them over an “inappropriate advances” Shaw had made towards the complainant’s wife several weeks earlier.
Shaw made a number of threats and said he would come to the couple’s house.
The suspect and a woman arrived at the home around 2 a.m.
Hoey said to them, “Get out of my house, this is not the time or the place.” He also told them that his two-year-old son was sleeping upstairs.
The court heard Shaw broke into the house and he and Mr Hoey got into a scuffle before they both fell to the ground.
The victim said he then “got a strap on the back of his head” and saw Stafford standing over him with a hammer in his hand.
Mr Hoey told Gardaí that he had been hit three times on the head and that there was “blood everywhere”. He woke up in the hospital.
Mr Hoey’s wife gave a statement to Gardaí that she yelled at Stafford to stop hitting her husband and that she thought he was dead when she saw him lying unconscious on the floor.
A medical report outlined the injuries he sustained.
They include a concussion and minor brain injuries that resulted in weakness in his arm.
Det Gda Lavin said Stafford and Shaw were named as suspects and were arrested several weeks later.
Stafford made confessions during the interview saying he was “sorry anything ever happened” but claimed the hammer slipped out of his sweatpants and caused the injuries.
CCTV footage from a nearby pub earlier that evening showed Stafford entering the building armed with a hammer and looking around before leaving.
Shaw also made confessions during the interview.
The two suspects were due to stand trial, but pleaded guilty last December.
The court heard that Shaw, who pleaded guilty to inflicting violence, has 12 previous convictions, including for threatening and abusive conduct, drunkenness and drink-driving.
Stafford, who admits there was assault and an article was made, has no previous convictions.
Noeleen Stafford previously pleaded guilty to common assault and received 180 hours of community service instead of six months in prison.
Judge Martin Nolan said the attack must have been painful for Mr Hoey and his wife, and both accused were equally guilty.
As an extenuating circumstance, the judge said both men had good employment records and that they were unlikely to repeat themselves.
He noted that Stafford immediately placed the victim in the recovery position after hitting him with the hammer.
However, the court found that the accused “both deserve to go to prison for what they did”, and Judge Nolan jailed them for two years.