A one-legged man, who has 12 previous convictions for assaulting gardaí as well as a previous conviction for manslaughter, has been jailed for two years after he admitted assaulting a serving officer by kicking him with his artificial limb.
Kenneth Parker, a 46-year-old native of Cobh but with an address at Charlemont Terrace, Wellington Road in Cork city, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Garda Alan Mooney on Wellington Road just two days before Christmas in 2014.
Sgt Tom McCarthy told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that Garda Mooney was on patrol with a colleague Garda Mary Jane Somers at 11.45pm on December 23rd 2014 when they noticed Parker involved in a dispute with another man.
Parker was very intoxicated and tried to punch his girlfriend who was trying to intervene in the dispute with the other man. The two officers went to arrest him and Garda Mooney had to use his pepper-spray to subdue him as he tried to put handcuffs on him.
Garda Mooney was attempting to move Parker into the car when Parker put his metal prosthetic limb behind him and kicked him in the ribs, causing Garda Mooney to fall back and injure his back, said Sgt McCarthy.
The kick resulted in Garda Mooney having to be taken to hospital where it was found he had suffered severe bruising to his ribs and it aggravated another old back injury which Garda Mooney had suffered in 2011 while on duty and resulted in him now suffering two slipped discs.
As a result of the assault, Garda Mooney was out of work from December 24th 2014 until March 2015 and while returned to work at the end of March, he was again forced out of work with the injury from October 2015 until the present day and is due to go for an operation within a month.
Sgt McCarthy said that Garda Mooney is in constant pain. He was involved in coaching Cork City’s U-17 soccer team but has had to give it up as a result of the injuries that had been aggravated by Parker’s assault.
Previous convictions
The court heard that Parker has a total of 66 previous convictions in Ireland including 19 for assault of which 12 were for assaulting gardaí while he also has a previous conviction for manslaughter from 2006 for which he had received a ten year sentence.
Parker also had 12 convictions outside of Ireland from when he lived in Wales and these included two convictions for assault causing bodily harm as well as one for assaulting a police officer there, said Sgt McCarthy.
He was on bail on separate assault charges from both Youghal and Middleton District Courts at the time of the assault on Garda Mooney, said Sgt McCarthy, adding that alcohol abuse was a major problem for Parker.
Defence counsel, Brendan Kelly BL said Parker also had a heroin addiction and the amputation of his leg had caused him a lot of difficulties and he was often in pain with his prosthetic limb.
His client had no recollection of the assault on Garda Mooney but he wished to apologise to him.
Summarising the evidence Judge David Riordan said that Parker had "landed this flying kick with his prosthetic leg on the guard's chest" which had resulted in Garda Mooney falling and hitting his back, thus aggravating an old injury which meant he was now having to face surgery.
Among the aggravating factors in the case was the fact that Parker was on bail at the time and the fact that he had so many previous convictions for assault including assaults on gardaí but it was a mitigating factor and to his credit that he had pleaded guilty in the case.
Judge Riordan noted Parker's problems with alcohol and heroin and sentenced him to three years with the final year suspended for a period of five years on condition he enters into an alcohol and drug addiction treatment programme while in prison.
