A man who assaulted an Irish Rail worker after he refused to show his ticket will be sentenced later for this and burglary of a Carlow GAA club.
William McCarthy (38) of Springfield Park, Carlow, pleaded guilty at Carlow Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting the ticket inspector on the Waterford/Heuston line as the train approached Muine Bheag/Bagenalstown on September 14, 2024.
He also pleaded guilty to criminal damage of a wall and cigarette dispensing machine and theft of cigarettes and cash from the machine at Éire Óg Clubhouse, O’Brien Road, Carlow town on August 8, 2024.
Brian O’Shea BL, prosecuting, told the court that the assault was deliberate and unprovoked.
Garda Peter Shortall told the court that the Irish Rail worker asked McCarthy for his ticket and when he refused to do so, he was asked to leave the train. There was a further discussion between the men before McCarthy put his hands around the conductor’s neck and punched him a number of times in the face.
Other passengers intervened and the assault came to an end.
The victim was later treated in hospital in Waterford for swelling and bruising to his face. He had a broken finger and had pain to his jaw, neck and shoulder.
In a victim impact statement read into the record, the victim said that he was a 61-year-old man who woke up that morning and put on his uniform for work before he said “I was brutally assaulted for asking the simple question ‘Can I see your ticket please?’”.
He said earlier in his statement that the assault had an extremely negative impact on him and his family. He spoke of difficulties paying his mortgage as he was not able to work for some time and spoke of having to attend counselling a number of times to allow him to return to work.
He said his wife worries about him going to work and he finds he is anxious as to how his day in work may go. He said his work on the train can be quite challenging at times but he said his counselling has helped him a lot.
Gda Shortall said the manager of Éire Óg arrived at the clubhouse to find that the office upstairs had been ransacked. A safe had been pulled off the wall and a cigarette machine had been removed from the building.
The cigarette machine was discovered outside by one of the pitches and had been damaged beyond repair. All the cigarettes and vapes were removed from the machine. The damage to the machine was estimated at €2,000, while €2,830 worth of cigarettes and vapes were stolen from it. A total of €1,520 in cash had been stolen during the course of the burglary.
Gda Shortall said McCarthy had previously burgled Éire Óg four times.
He said CCTV footage was secured but gardaí were not able to identify the suspects. Blood left behind at the scene was examined and found to match McCarthy’s DNA profile.
Gda Shortall agreed with Tara Geoghegan BL, defending, that the manager was able to establish that the burglars gained access through a window in the men’s toilet that had been left open.
He further agreed that they were not able to identify the second intruder.
Ms Geoghegan submitted to the court that McCarthy was in the throes of addiction when he carried out the burglary and that it was effectively “criminality out of desperation” to pay back his debt.
She said McCarthy asked the ticket inspector why he was not asking anyone else for their ticket.
Gda Shortall told the court that McCarthy was known as a regular on the train and most of the time he did not have a ticket.
Ms Geoghegan said McCarthy was intoxicated and had taken heroin the day he was on the train. He said he felt singled out. She said this was not an excuse for his behaviour but rather an explanation for his state of mind when he was approached by the victim.
Counsel said McCarthy had instructed her that when he takes heroin he is “agitated, short-tempered, irritable and very aggressive”.
She said this was in line with the person the victim unfortunately met on the train that day.
Judge Eugene O’Kelly remanded McCarthy in continuing custody and adjourned sentencing until next week. McCarthy appeared at the sentence hearing via video link.