Mayo men sentenced to a combined total of 17 years for assaults on gay men

TWO Mayo men were sentenced to a combined total of 17 years imprisonment for their part in a assault on two men which resulted in one of them sustaining a perforated bowel.

John Paul Cunningham (44) of 26 Gladesville, Castlebar was sentenced to a total of nine years imprisonment while Martin Regan (39) of Aghadrinagh, Castlebar was given an eight year sentence at a sitting of Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court this afternoon.

The men were both found guilty by a jury in March of assault causing harm and causing serious harm to Conor Sheridan (28) at 26 Gladesville, Castlebar on December 8, 2020 as well as false imprisonment of Mr Sheridan.

They were also found guilty of assault causing harm to Dean Cleary (32) at the same location and date along with attempting to pervert the course of justice between December 8 and 9, 2020 at 26 Gladesville, Castlebar.

A third co-accused Mary Fox (53) of 26 Gladesville, Castlebar was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment with the final six months suspended after she was found guilty of false imprisonment of Mr Sheridan; attempting to pervert the course of justice, as well as a separate charge of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Mr Cleary at 26 Gladesville, Castlebar on December 8, 2020. She was acquitted of causing serious harm to Mr Sheridan and assault causing harm to Mr Cleary.

All three pleaded not guilty to the charges and the trial took place over 15 days before Judge Eoin Garavan at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court.

Bedroom assaults

Evidence was heard that Mr Sheridan and Mr Cleary were beaten continuously by Mr Regan and Mr Cunningham in an assault in a bedroom in 26 Gladesville, Castlebar which was fueled by alcohol and cocaine.

The two victims had been in a sexual relationship and during the night the two defendant's got angry when it was claimed that Mr Sheridan put his arm around Ms Fox's son.

The two complainants claimed that later the night, Mr Regan and Mr Cunningham came into the bedroom they were in and started to assault them. Conor Sheridan claimed that Mr Cunningham hit him with the buckle of a belt while Mr Regan assaulted him with a stick.

Mr Cleary also claimed that Mr Cunningham also used a t-towel filled with coal to assault them while he accused Ms Fox of threatening to pour boiling water and sugar on his genitals and called them 'paedos and faggots'.

The trial heard that Mr Sheridan was covered in blood when he escaped from the bedroom and sustained a fractured nose and a perforated bowel in the assault. Medical evidence in the trial stated he was fortunate not to develop sepsis before he sought treatment.

Hatred

In sentencing the defendant's Judge Garavan said it was difficult to say definitively what was the reason for the assault but there was no doubt 'there was a homophobic aspect that night'.

“The motivation in this case, there is nothing else there...until the event with Mary Fox's son occurred with the arm around him...then that sets something loose in the three accused minds to varying degrees. That set the ball rolling for this particular attack and there can be no doubt that the motivation was one of hatred of these two individuals for being bed together, for being lovers, for some sort of attraction to Ms Fox's son. There was an element of it,” Judge Garavan said.

The court was told that both Mr Cunningham and Mr Regan accepted the guilt of the assault causing harm charges but both still deny the more serious charge of assault causing serious harm.

Following the guilty verdict in March, the three defendants were remanded in custody for sentencing.

A letter written by Mr Cunningham to the victims was read out in court where he apologised for his actions and stated the two men did not deserve the beating they got.

“I would have walked away from it had I been a better man. I am sorry for the harm we inflicted on both of you. I don't know how things blew up so quickly but that is not an excuse for what happened.

“Before all of this we were good friends and had good times living together and I am sorry we destroyed the friends we were and if you don't agree that's okay I understand.

“I don't want to do this to anyone again. I am doing courses that are helping me alot. I have been in and out of prison for years but I want to do better and change my life and I am trying to change my life.

“When I get out I would like to meet up for a chat with you. If you agree to meet I will be very grateful. I know this would be difficult but we were good friends before all of this happened,” Mr Cunningham wrote in the letter.

Traumatised 

Detective Garda Paula Griffin told the sentencing hearing that Mr Sheridan was too traumatised to make a victim impact statement as he doesn't want to think about the incident and he is ‘not in a good place mentally’.

She said that Dean Cleary did make a victim impact statement but was too terrified to attend court and asked for his statement to be read out to the court.

Judge Eoin Garavan said level of violence warranted custodial sentences

In the statement, Mr Cleary stated that he and Conor met in school over 20 years ago and were always friends and over time they became inseparable. He said this all changed after the assault and he is not the same person following the assault.

Mr Cleary said he has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and is now living his life on edge and paranoid that something bad will happen to him. He said that he has become dependant on alcohol to 'numb the mental torture' and has attempted to take his own life on multiple occasions.

“It gets to a stage where I just can't see a way out and I don't want to live because my life will never be the same as it was. It changed me from being an outgoing boy to an emotional wreck,” he stated in his victim impact statement.

The two victims met by chance in the TF Royal Hotel in Castlebar on December 7, 2020. At the time Mr Cleary lived at 26 Gladesville and he was in the company of Ms Fox, Mr Cunningham and Tommy Phelan, the son of Ms Fox in the TF.

They eventually went back to 26 Gladesville where the jury heard that they continued drinking and drugs were taken. Mr Regan had been staying in the house at the time and was drinking with the group when they arrived back at the house.

Following the assault, the three defendants attempted to cover up their crime by burning and hiding evidence and cleaning up the room with bleach and forcing Mr Cleary to burn his clothes and take a shower.

When the three defendants were arrested by gardaí and questioned in relation to the injuries sustained by the two complainants, they all denied that they had assaulted the two men in a bedroom. The three told gardaí that the two complainants had been arguing in the bedroom that night and it was claimed the injuries occurred as a result of a lover's tiff.

The jury of nine men and three women deliberated the charges over two days before recording their verdicts.

Mr Cunningham has 44 previous convictions and is currently serving a four year sentence for assault causing harm which was handed down in Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court in October 2023.

Mr Diarmuid Connolly, counsel for Mr Cunningham said his client had put his time in prison to good use and was engaging in course to address his issues. He said he has alcohol and drug addiction issues and first started to abuse drugs when he was only 14 years.

Mr Regan had no previous convictions for violence and his barrister, Mark Ryan explained that before he went into custody he was a carer for his elderly mother. He asked the court for forgiveness and mercy and to be lenient in sentencing.

Mr Barry White, senior counsel for Ms Fox said his client was the mother of four and she accepted her guilt. He asked Judge Garavan to take into account the fact she was never in trouble before and she played a lesser role in the offence.

Scene of 'horror and degradation'

In sentencing, Judge Garavan said what happened in the bedroom that night was a scene of 'horror and degradation' with extreme violence causing serious injuries and in the case of Mr Sheridan 'a significant possibility of death'.

“What ensued was a vicious, sinister, almost deadly and degrading series of assaults leaving Mr Sheridan in a precarious state,” he said.

Judge Garavan said the victims were in fear for their life on the night and believed Mr Cleary to be genuine when he said he was left utterly traumatised by the event. He said the good relationship between the two victims has been damaged because of what occurred on the night.

Judge Garavan said the violent nature of the offences had to be reflected in custodial sentences and considered the offences to be on the high end of the medium range of severity. He said there were not many mitigating factors in favour of either Mr Cunningham or Mr Regan.

He imposed a nine year sentence on Mr Cunningham and it is to run consecutively with the sentence he is already serving.

Mr Regan was sentenced to eight years while Ms Fox was sentenced to a total of 30 months with the final six months suspended for two years. She was also ordered to engage with the Probation Service for one year post release. All the sentences were backdated to March 5 last, the day they entered custody.