Jason Haughey
A NOTORIOUS criminal is back behind bars this evening – after admitting his part in a vicious attack.
Jason Haughey, 23, from Letterkenny, landed a number of blows on a man as he ate food at a Four Lanterns restaurant, the town’s District Court heard.
Inspector Goretti Sheridan told Judge Paul Kelly that the incident took place at 3am on October 31, 2011.
Haughey and two other men repeatedly punched Gerard Gallagher, even after he had fallen to the ground.
The other two men had already been dealt with by the courts.
Haughey, she said, had 37 previous convictions.
Defence solicitor Patsy Gallagher said Haughey “who is known to the court” had got involved with what was a family dispute.
“It was a case of cousins fighting between themselves and he found himself in the middle of it,” said the lawyer.
But he said Haughey was now “finally” trying to deal with drug and drink addictions – addictions he had since the age of 14.
Mr Gallagher said his client had spent 15 days in hospital recently in an effor to finally “break free” of these addictions.
“Mr Haughey is now on medication and he knows he will be so for a very long time if not for the rest of his life,” said the solicitor.
“This the calmest state I have seen in him in a long time,” he added, asking for a lenient sentence.
However Judge Paul Kelly said the incident was “very serious.”
He told the court: “This was a man sitting in a food restaurant minding his own business and he was set upon by three people, one of whom was Mr Huaghey.”
He jailed Haughey for four months.