glass in a bar fight

blade30 · 21-05-2007 12:03PM

patrickolee wrote:

If you're lucky it would only take that long. My friends case was nearly put off until next March as the courts were busy and his case, relatively, was not so serious (by circuit court standards)... and even then its not guaranteed, courts could have been busy the following year too! Only reason it got heard this year was he pleaded with the barrister to ask the judge if he could get it over with and the judge was nice. I think the defense normally like to put it off, but in his mind the waiting was worse than any punishment that might have been served.

A mate of mine was recently in envolved in a fight were ended up striking the other person with a bottle, he told me that the other guy got angry because he was talking to his girl friend and started treatening my mate, and my mate in an moment of shear stupidity tried to push the guy away with his bottle not intending to casue any harm but before he knew where he was the other guy started belting my hard in the face and my mate was knocked to ground. My friend said that he then got back up and hit the other guy in the side of the face because he thought we was going to be hit again. He said that doesnt remember if the bottle was still in his hand or not but Apparently the guy has now made a complaint to the gardia saying that my mate glassed him. I didn´t see the incident myself but I say the guy on the way out of the bar and he didn´t seem to any worse off than my friend. My friend has ADHD and is very prone to acting without thinking, but he is not normally a violent person and has never been trouble before.
My friend is really worried about what will happen if it goes to court.

Dyr · 21-05-2007 12:12PM

Dunno, but i heard of a lad who had a similar story to your friends and wound up looking at prison time :eek: . He even took a hefty loan out to pay the guy he "glassed" compo

patrickolee · 21-05-2007 12:21PM

Oh man... that sucks, it sounds like you are in very much the same situ I was 2 and half years ago. Best thing your friend can do is employ a good Solicitor,
Garret Sheehan my friend used and they were brilliant. If this was very recently get him to see a doctor so he has proof of his injuries and take pictures. Try and get other witnesses to the incident, even put an ad in the paper (that's what I did and it seemed to help, because it show you are trying to represent the truth at least... just in case the other guy tries to come up with some fantastic story). A few questions

1. What size is your friend vs the other guy?
2. Do you have any other witnesses?
3. Any cc tv?
4. Has he heard what the other guys 'story' is?

My heart goes out to you, you (and more importantly your friend) have a very long battle ahead of you. Once there is a glass/bottle it puts it on the high end of the district court/low end of the circuit court. If it gets referred up, as it did with my friend you are looking at least a wait of 2 years, but possibly much more for the case to be heard.

Your friend should consult a lawyer for the pluses and minuses of pleading guilty, because it all depends on what the other guy is saying happened. He may well spin a yarn. But I can tell you what my friend was told, is that, because he didn't have any previous convictions and could bring character witnesses and was willing/able to pay 5000Euro to the other guy, he would probably get 1 year suspended, if he pleaded guilty and saved the courts time. If he decided to bring it to court, he was risking 6 months of real jail, but the situation could well be different for your friend, so contact a lawyer... and quick. Don't make a voluntary statement to na gardai without talking to the lawyer first. If the gaurds ask him if he wants to press charges against the other guy, because he was hit first and was also assaulted, then say Yes. At least that way, the other fella doesn't have a shot to nothing.

blade30 · 21-05-2007 12:52PM

patrickolee wrote:

My heart goes out to you, you (and more importantly your friend) have a very long battle ahead of you. Once there is a glass/bottle it puts it on the high end of the district court/low end of the circuit court. If it gets referred up, as it did with my friend you are looking at least a wait of 2 years, but possibly much more for the case to be heard.

I think his solicitor told him that since he was a student about to finish his degree that the Judge might apply the probation act and he may have to pay a couple of grand in compensation. He said that he doesn't have any witnesses to verify his story because he didn't know anyone else in the bar. Hopefully the Judge will go lightly on my friend.

blade30 · 21-05-2007 01:11PM

Bambi wrote:

Dunno, but i heard of a lad who had a similar story to your friends and wound up looking at prison time :eek: . He even took a hefty loan out to pay the guy he "glassed" compo

What sort of injuries did the other guy receive?

patrickolee · 21-05-2007 02:01PM

blade30 wrote:

What sort of injuries did the other guy receive?

Well for my friend it was a cut requiring stiches beneath the eye and some small damage to the outer part of the eye ball, but no permanent damage or scarring... he was looking at 5000. Its a voluntary payment though, so it's kind of up to your friends barrister/solicitor as to what he would offer to pay. First thing advised my friend to do was open up a credit union account in case he needed to get a loan. He managed to save 9,000 in the year and a half! Not bad on minimum wage.

blade30 · 21-05-2007 02:19PM

patrickolee wrote:

Well for my friend it was a cut requiring stiches beneath the eye and some small damage to the outer part of the eye ball, but no permanent damage or scarring... he was looking at 5000. Its a voluntary payment though, so it's kind of up to your friends barrister/solicitor as to what he would offer to pay. First thing advised my friend to do was open up a credit union account in case he needed to get a loan. He managed to save 9,000 in the year and a half! Not bad on minimum wage.

I see, but in your friends case did glass actually break and cause the damage or was it an impact trauma?

Dyr · 21-05-2007 02:44PM

blade30 wrote:

What sort of injuries did the other guy receive?

Not sure, its a friend-of-a-friend story, apparently the guy in question instinctively raised his hand when the other fella swung at him (forgetting that he had a pint in his hand) and it smashed in his face, so you're looking a scarring to the face i guess.

patrickolee · 21-05-2007 02:53PM

Glass broke as a result of hitting him... i.e. wasn't broken beforehand. What is important is that it was self defense i.e. had no other option to get out of the situation and was in major fear of what was going to happen to him. Wasn't break the glass and then run after someone with it, more of a split second reaction. Also the relative sizes of the individuals come in to play when considering if there was fear or anger in _his_ mind.

blade30 · 21-05-2007 02:55PM

Bambi wrote:

Not sure, its a friend-of-a-friend story, apparently the guy in question instinctively raised his hand when the other fella swung at him (forgetting that he had a pint in his hand) and it smashed in his face, so you're looking a scarring to the face i guess.

Well my friend certainly had a bottle not a glass (I bought it for him) in his hand and I couldn't see any sign of broken glass on the floor around the area where the incident happened.

patrickolee · 21-05-2007 03:14PM

blade30 wrote:

Well my friend certainly had a bottle not a glass (I bought it for him) in his hand so and I couldn't see any sign of broken glass on the ground either.

You will probably be a good witness for him then. I hope it goes well for him and you. Try and see if you can get cctv, the pub is legally oblidged to give it to you if they have cameras (within a certain time period). Also if you can, go in and take pictures of the pub so he can easily describe to the defense team the layout of the bar, where it happened etc. Its surprisingly hard to remember little details 2+ years later. In my friends case the bar had been refurbished in the meantime and he remembered the layout table sizes etc slightly differently from me.

glass in a bar fight

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