‘Spontaneous, crazy act’: man to be sentenced for violent assaults on student and charity worker

A man who left a charity worker in fear for her life and a sleeping student covered in blood in two separate late-night assaults is due to be sentenced next month.

Colin Lloyd (30), with an address at Cumminstown, Ballynacargy, County Westmeath, appeared before Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Court, where he expressed remorse for behaviour that he said resulted from a blackout after taking what he thought was cocaine while on a night out with colleagues two years ago.

The landscaping foreman previously entered guilty pleas to assault causing harm to his two victims within hours of each other, as well as trespassing, all in the early hours of March 24, 2024.

The first of the assaults took place at 3.30am on Austin Friar Street, Mullingar, where a 55-year-old charity worker had just arrived at the bus stop after spending the day in Dublin on a soup run for the homeless.

As she was waiting for her husband to collect her, she sat on a window ledge of a nearby building when Mr Lloyd approached her and “started rubbing her hat”. She told him to stop and to go away.

CCTV footage showed the woman getting up and walking away, as Mr Lloyd made his way towards a bookies. He never spoke, the court heard.

Moments later, he returned and approached her again, swinging his arms and “gave her a few boxes”. He knocked her to the ground, pulled her jacket over her head and started kicking her.

Garda Sheila Heaphy outlined to Cathal O’Braonáin, BL, prosecuting, that the woman thought she was going to die. She told gardaí that “blood was coming out of her everywhere”. She started screaming and he ran away.

Her husband arrived less than five minutes later. She suffered minor injuries, including some swelling and bruising on her arm and shoulder, as well as a sore left eye, and a cap knocked off her tooth.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said she had “bad nightmares” and “I thought he was going to kill me, he was kicking me so hard”.

The second assault took place just hours later at the Annebrook House Hotel, the court heard. The victim was a student from Galway who had travelled for a musical competition and was sharing a room with two friends.

Sergeant Deborah Macken outlined to the court how the student had gone to bed but left a shoe in the doorway so his two room mates could get in.

However, he woke up “covered in blood” after Mr Lloyd had entered his bedroom and assaulted him. Photos furnished to the court showed blood on the walls, the bedsheets and the hotel carpet.

The student was taken by ambulance to hospital, where he was treated for a fractured cheekbone, which required surgery. He remained in hospital for a week and was unable to eat properly for some time after.

In his victim impact statement, he said his room was “a wreck” when he awoke, with “blood everywhere”. He still gets insomnia and his face looks different now – “not in a big way, but I can see it and it bothers me”.

“I try to push down the emotion,” he said, “this really affects me to this day.”

When interviewed by gardaí and shown CCTV footage, Mr Lloyd was “appalled” by his behaviour, stating “I couldn’t do that”.

“I don’t recall any of this. I’ve never been in trouble or caused anyone any bother. This just isn’t my character. This would never happen. I’m repulsed. I feel sick,” he said.

In the witness box, he read out letters of apology to both victims, acknowledging the “unimaginable pain” he caused the student and his family and how deeply his actions had affected the victim.

The charity worker, who was present in court, got up from her seat and moved to a less visible corner of the court as Mr Lloyd read out his letter of apology to her.

“I can only imagine the fear and anxiety that have lingered long after. I can’t imagine how your family felt when they got the call to say what had happened. No one should have to go through what I put you through. All of this is completely out of character,” he told her.

The court heard that Mr Lloyd was on a night out with some work colleagues and had consumed alcohol, as well as a substance he believed to be cocaine, for which he had paid €50. He has no recollection of the night after taking the drug.

“I’m just ashamed. I can’t imagine the pain they’re carrying. For me to have inflicted that, I’ll carry it every day,” he told Judge Johnson.

In mitigation, John Shortt, SC outlined that his client had come before the court on foot of a signed guilty plea. He accepted responsibility for his actions and had no previous convictions.

“You’re regularly faced with the situation where young people have fallen off the rails and amassed a number of previous convictions,” he told the judge.

“There’s nothing to suggest he was anything other than a hard working, decent man with no convictions in his 28th year before the disastrous events of the early hours of March 24.

“He has given an explanation as to why he did what he admits to doing – the cocktail of drink and some substance which he believed to be cocaine. It’s no defence, but it gives an explanation.

“Unfortunately it has had significant consequences for him in that he’ll have two serious convictions now.”

Mr Lloyd had raised a total of €17,000 as compensation for the victims – €13,000 of which was submitted in July of last year when the confirmation of the pleas was entered before the court, showing “immediate engagement with the process to alleviate the effect on the victims”.

“The offending is serious,” said Mr Shortt, “but the manner in which he has addressed it is providing the court with a substantial reason why an immediate custodial sentence would not be appropriate.

“This was a spontaneous, crazy act, which reveals the dark places we can go to when we abuse substances without knowing the effect they can have on us.”

Judge Johnson, having heard the evidence, said it was “quite a bizarre case”, in that two random assaults were perpetrated on two innocent victims.

The first victim was subjected to “a horrific experience”, he said, as she had come back from helping on a soup run for the homeless in Dublin.

“It’s appalling to subject her to such a vicious assault while she was waiting for her husband to come and collect her after doing such a charitable act,” he said.

It was also a “heinous” experience for the student, who was asleep at the time and suffered injuries which had him hospitalised for seven days, unable to eat and suffering significant psychological issues.

“These are two very, very serious assaults,” said Judge Johnson, adding that he needs time to consider sentence.

He directed that €5,000 of the compensation money be paid to the charity worker, while the balance of €12,000 was to be given to the student.

Mr Lloyd will reappear before the court on May 7 for sentence and was remanded on continuing bail until that date.