Suspended sentence and €35,000 compensation order for violent blackout assaults

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, has been handed a three-year prison sentence, which has been suspended for five years.

Colin Lloyd (30), with an address at Cumminstown, Ballynacargy, County Westmeath, appeared before Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Court, where he previously 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.

Judge Johnson noted the seriousness of the charges and that both victims were “subjected to horrific assaults”. The attacks, he said, were “unprovoked, shocking, random and came out of nowhere”.

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.

CCTV footage showed Mr Lloyd swinging his arms as he “gave her a few boxes”. He knocked her to the ground, pulled her jacket over her head and started kicking her.

Garda Sheila Heaphy previously 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 previously 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.

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’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.

Mr Lloyd had raised a total of €18,600 as compensation for the victims, €13,000 of which was handed in as far back as 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”.

“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,” said Mr Shortt.

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.

He noted the €18,600 raised in compensation to date, stating that “payment of compensation by a person in the position of the accused is not a case of buying a way out of trouble; it is indicative of remorse and places a burden on the accused as he has to earn that money and then hand it over to the injured party”.

He also accepted that the offences were “out of character” for Mr Lloyd, who believed he had taken cocaine that had been “spiked”. He showed genuine shame and remorse and repeated his apologies in court.

Testimonials and character references spoke to good work ethic and positive contribution, referring to him as “reliable and dependable”.

The judge set headline sentences of five years and six months for each of the assaults but mitigated those to three years each, concurrent, before suspending the entirety for five years on a number of conditions.

Those conditions include that he pay a total of €10,000 to the first victim, €5,000 of which has already been paid; the balance is due by September 1, 2027.

The second victim, who sustained more serious injuries, is to be paid a total of €25,000 in compensation, €13,500 of which has already been paid; the balance is due by February 1, 2028.