A Letterkenny man who carried out a series of savage assaults on innocent victims including beating a pizza chef almost unconscious with an iron bar has been jailed for more than five years.
John McGinley, aged 19, admitted carrying out the attacks which left his victims with serious physical and mental scars for the rest of their lives.
The attacks happened while McGinley was under the influence of drink and drugs.
One of his victims suffered life-lasting facial injuries while another man was struck ten times with an iron bar about the head.
The accused appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court where Judge John Aylmer told him he was “entirely fortuitous” that one of his victims did not die from his injuries.
That victim was Shidalan Rahaman, a pizza chef who was attacked and struck with a bar ten times by McGinley as he got out of his car at the Ard Lonan estate at Long Lane in Letterkenny on March 13th last year.
Mr Rahaman, who bravely faced his attacker in court, fell to the ground and was bleeding heavily after the vicious attack but nobody responded to his calls for help.
There was snow on the ground and he thought he was going to die from his injuries and the cold.
McGinley has pleaded guilty to two other vicious assaults as well as causing €7,500 worth of damage to a lorry parked up in Letterkenny.
In one of the other assaults on a young man, McGinley struck the victim so hard that the man had to have his eyelid rebuilt and was lucky not to have lost his eyesight.
Detective Garda Bobby Carey gave evidence of an attack at Hazelbrook Crescent in Letterkenny at 4.45am on August 24th, 2021.
Gardai arrived after reports of men breaking a number of windows in the house.
There was a man present and he was bleeding who said he has been attacked by John McGinley and some accomplices.
The house had been damaged downstairs and the attackers had left by taxi while it was also claimed that McGinley had produced a shovel during the incident.
CCTV was gathered but it was quite dark and the victims declined to make statements.
McGinley, with an address at Glenard Park, Letterkenny, also pleaded guilty to criminal damage on November 1st, 2019 at a construction site at Long Lane, Letterkenny.
A Scania lorry was set upon and seriously damaged with a wing mirror broken, passenger window smashed, headlights and tail-lights smashed, a radio pulled out, windscreen wipers pulled off and an indicator arm pulled off the steering wheel.
The total damage came to €7,500.
Blood was found in the cabin of the vehicle and when DNA samples were taken it matched with samples from John McGinley.
Detective Garda Derek Connaughton then outlined then details of the horrific attack on innocent pizza chef Shidalan Rahaman.
He told how Mr Rahaman had finished work and was getting out of his Toyota Yaris car at Ard Lonan when he noticed a man walking around his boundary wall who began to run at him.
The man had a one foot long solid ‘rod’ in his hand and he hit the rod against his left hand demanding the key to Mr Rahaman’s car.
He then touched the victim’s trousers searching for the car key before proceeding to strike him with the bar.
Mr Rahaman fell to the ground saying the man was too strong for him saying he thinks he was struck as many as ten times.
The attacker eventually got the key and took Mr Rahaman’s car.
In his terrifying victim impact statement, the victim told how he thought at times that he could die if he lost consciousness as he was bleeding heavily as it was very cold and there was snow on the ground.
He did manage to get to Letterkenny University Hospital and received 16 stitches for wounds to his head and still has some scaring form the attack.
He was out of work for three months but still suffers form severe pain and is unable to work as fast as he could before because of injuries to his fingers he received while trying to protect himself from the blows of the bar.
He has moved from the Long Lane despite enjoying living there and ignoring claims from others that it was a rough area.
He still cannot sleep at night and worries that he will never return to full health.
Detective Connaughton said in a follow-up investigation the victim’s car was found crashed and abandoned at Kirkstown.
DNA was taken from the chassis of the car which matched John McGinley while the victim’s blood was also found on McGinley’s jacket.
A heavy rusted steel pin or bar was found in the car while CCTV showed McGinley’s movements towards the victim’s house at Ard Lonan.
The accused was arrested on April 22nd and interviewed three times at Letterkenny Garda station but said he could not remember what had happened.
He said he had heard of the incident on the news and was shown CCTV footage and said that if it was him that he wanted to apologise.
Detective Carey gave evidence of another attack carried out by McGinley.
It happened on June 26th, 2021 when Christopher Gibson claimed he was attacked at a house at Glenard Park.
Evidence was given that McGinley accused Mr Gibson of “going with” his sister and accusing him of being too old for her before he suddenly struck him with a bottle.
Dazed and confused, the victim tried to leave the house when he was attacked by another man with a wheel brace in the back of the head.
He was taken to Letterkenny University Hospital and then transferred to Sligo University Hospital for specialist treatment on his eyes.
He received nine stitches and although his eyesight was saved, his eyelid had to be rebuilt and still hangs down a little, the court was told.
Mr Gibson knew the court case was on but declined to make a victim impact statement.
Asked how he was today, Mr Gibson said he was not in a good place mentally but is glad the case is coming to a resolution and that he doe snot have to give evidence.
The court heard that McGinley has 22 previous convictions for a range of incidents including assault, burglary, criminal damage, possession of a knife, traffic matters and theft.
His barrister Mr Colm Smyth, directed by solicitor Rory O’Brien, produced a letter of apology from McGinley to his victims.
In the letter he said he now has a partner and is the father of an eight month old baby and has learned his lesson.
Mr Smyth said his client had left school at 13 and began smoking cannabis and drugs which turned into a daily addiction.
However, he said that Mr McGinley said in many ways that his arrest for the attack on Mr Rahaman saved his life in many ways as prison gave him the chance to cease his drug and alcohol addiction.
Mr Smyth admitted the attack and injuries to his victims “were quite horrific on any level” and that McGinley accepts whatever consequences.
He also added that his client suffers from epilepsy and ADHD.
In the cold light of day he is now seriously ashamed of his actions and he is now trying to deal with his anger management, he added.
He pleaded with Judge John Aylmer to be as lenient as he possibly could stating that McGinley’s rehab has started and that he has sought counselling.
The accused has been in custody since April last year.
Passing sentence Judge John Aylmer dealt with each case separately.
Noting McGinley was a minor at the time, he sentenced McGinley to six months in prison for the criminal damage to the truck.
Judge Aylmer said that it was entirely fortuitous that a more serious injury was not caused to the right eye of victim Christopher Gibson involving the loss of sight.
Before mitigating circumstances were taken into account, he felt the offence was at the upper end of the scale for such offending behaviour meriting a sentence of 5 years.
The third set of facts related to the theft of two keys and criminal damage to a window of Janet Hoy on the 24th August, 2021. The court remarked the offences appeared to be peripheral to demands being made for money at the property.
But Judge Aylmer added that by far the most serious offence was the assault and theft of Mr Rahaman’s car.
The court noted an aggravating feature of these was the fact the accused was on bail at the time.
This involved a very significant degree of violence to Mr. Rahman who was beaten about the head with a heavy rusty steel pin, an extremely dangerous weapon and it was entirely fortuitous that the injuries to the victim were not far more serious or even fatal, added the Judge.
Taking into consideration that he was a young man in the grip of serious drug problem and for whom there was a hope of rehabilitation and his early guilty plea he sentenced McGinley, Judge Aylmer reduced the sentence of assault to Mr. Gibson to one 3 years and 4 months imprisonment.
He further sentenced McGinley in relation to the theft of keys and criminal damage on the 24th August, 2021 to six months’ imprisonment which was consecutive to the 3 years and 4 months above.
Finally, in relation to the offences against Mr. Rahman, McGinley was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for the unlawful seizure of the vehicle and 3 years and 4 months imprisonment for assault causing harm. This sentence was also to run consecutively to the assault on Mr. Gibson and the court took the view it would be an injustice if the sentences were to run concurrent to each other.
However, bearing in mind the totality principle and the clear need for supervised rehabilitation and the young age of the accused, he suspended the final 3 years of the five year sentence and the final 12 months of the 3 year sentence on the accused entering into a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for 3 year subsequent to his release and to abide by all conditions of the probation service.
McGinley entered into his bond which means he will have a total of 5 years and 4 months to serve in prison with time backdated to when he originally went into custody in April last year.