A 33-year old man who carried out a “sustained assault” in the centre of Belfast has been jailed.
Seamus O’Leary from Carrigart Avenue in Belfast pleaded guilty to a charge of actual bodily harm and was handed a two-year sentence which was divided equally between prison and licence.
Belfast Crown Court heard that on the evening of May 16, O’Leary was in Donegall Place in Belfast on his bicycle.
He stopped at Tesco Express and engaged in a conversation with a group of people. Whilst there, O'Leary was approached by the injured party who punched him once in the face.
As a result of this, O'Leary got off his bike and attacked the injured party by punching him in the head around 17 times.
After the injured party fell to the ground, the assault continued with O'Leary both stamping on and kicking the other man in the head.
O'Leary then lost control, fell to the ground himself and the violent incident was broken up when people at the scene intervened.
When he was stopped by police, O’Leary said he had been punched and was just defending himself. He was arrested and during an interview with police, he refused to answer questions.
Crown barrister Kate McKay branded the incident - which was caught on CCTV - as a "sustained assault" and revealed the injured party did not make a statement to police.
Defence submissions made by barrister Luke Curran set out O'Leary's personal circumstances, including a history of drug addiction which he has taken steps to address.
The father-of-one had also expressed a desire to stop offending and regain employment as a chef.
During sentencing, Judge Kerr there was “absolutely no doubt that people stamping on people’s heads and kicking them in the head” was a serious offence.
The judge added that whilst O’Leary was punched first “he could easily have withdrawn from the scene on his bike, but instead he decided to get off his bike, put it down and pursue the person concerned.”
Judge Kerr also highlighted O'Leary's 42 previous convictions which include prior incidents of violence.
He imposed the two-year sentence which was divided equally between prison and licence and, as O'Leary was under a suspended sentence at the time of the assault and breached that court order, Judge Kerr activated six months of that sentence.
This brought the total term imposed to 30 months.