Cork student jailed for attack that included 50 kicks to the face amid 250 strikes
Darragh McLoughlin was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison with the last two-and-a-half years suspended. File picture: Dan Linehan
A student who punched, struck, kicked and stamped on another man 250 times in a 20-minute attack in the centre of Cork City was jailed for four years on Thursday.
Judge Jonathan Dunphy recalled that the video recording which was played in the course of evidence was so violent that most people in the courtroom were forced to look away from the screens when it was played at the sentencing hearing at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Dunphy said it was nothing short of a miracle that the injuries were not life-threatening. 22-year-old Darragh McLoughlin of 23 Richmond Hill, Cork, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison with the last two-and-a-half years suspended.
The judge recalled from a section of video played in court lasting just over a minute — using the victim’s own phone also carrying audio of the violence: “He instructs him to put his hands down so that he can kick him in the skull unprotected. I counted 14 kicks to the head in that.
"He can be seen stripping some clothing off the injured party. He leaves (momentarily) and returns to continue the assault.”
More than 50 of the blows consisted of kicks in the face. “The total number of blows, strikes, stamps or kicks totalled 250,” prosecution barrister Emmet Boyle said of the 20-minute period of CCTV of the incident.
The judge said it appeared to start with a calm conversation and interaction between the parties before becoming a brief physical altercation outside the nightclub.
The defendant believed his phone had been stolen and there was some history of bad blood between them as the defendant had been assaulted a year earlier by a group associated with the injured party.
The victim suffered multiple fractures of the right eye socket, fractures of nasal bones and was left with double vision and what was described as an ongoing deformity.
The defendant later accepted when shown CCTV of the attack that he had engaged in animalistic behaviour.
During a 77-second video-recording made by the assailant with the victim’s phone, the man on the ground with a bloody face is heard groaning and a voice is heard saying: “Look at you – you’re an embarrassment.” The assailant also removed the injured party’s trousers and shoes.
Darragh McLoughlin admitted assault causing serious harm to a man at Paul Street, Cork, on October 18, 2022, as well as robbing his iPhone 7 — the whole incident starting some distance away at 1.15am on that date outside the Secret Garden nightclub at Rearden’s.
In his victim impact statement, read by Detective Garda Joe Crowley, he said it was undoubtedly the worst day of his life and he was still trying to fill in the gaps in his memory of what happened. He still has nightmares and flashbacks.
He found it extremely frightening to see the condition of his face in hospital: “I still don’t fully recognise myself.”
He said that it affected him mentally and physically from waking up each morning until he goes to sleep at night and that it would affect him every day of his life. He said it had also deeply affected his family.
Defence senior counsel Tom Creed said there had been some history between the parties. He said the accused had been on anti-depressant medication that night following a suicide attempt the previous night and that unfortunately he combined alcohol with medication.
The senior counsel said there were extensive character references which painted a different picture of the defendant, including one which stated that the defendant was consumed by guilt and was deeply remorseful. He brought €10,000 compensation to court for the injured party.
