Two Donegal men who beat up a taxi driver in a row over a fare will have to come up with more cash compensation for their victim, a judge has ruled.
Ciaran Kilgannon, (20) Ernedale Heights, Ballyshannon and his friend Stephen Sherrin (29), Kildoney, Ballyshannon, admitted, at an earlier court sitting charges of assault and public order at the Rosemount B&B, Dublin Road, Dundalk, on August 19 last.
The court was told was told how the men, who are plumbers, had been in Dundalk working on a job for a number of days and had gone into town drinking.
They got a taxi back to the B&B they were staying at around 3am and gave the driver just €4 before jumping out of the taxi.
When the driver went after them to ask for the correct fare, they said they weren’t paying him any more and he got back into his car. But Kilgannon and Sherrin followed him and hit him a number of times. He was taken to Drogheda hospital by ambulance where he was treated for cuts to his face and knees, as well as bruising to his face.
The taxi driver told the judge late last year how he still suffers from the effects of the beating and hadn’t fully recovered.
Solicitor Roger McGinley said both his clients ‘very much regret’ what happened and they had expressed their remorse at the time they were interviewed by Gardai and owned up to what they did.
Compensation of €2,000 was brought to court on the last occasion but Judge Brennan said he wanted to see ‘at least double that’.
The victim had suffered cuts and bruises and had to be taken to hospital.
A solicitor for the defendants told the latest hearing that the men were to pay €5,000 compensation, half each, to Mr Olabe.
A final payment of €1,000 had been paid over on the morning of the court.
Solicitor Sean T O’Reilly, appearing for the victim, said that one serious aspect of the case was the names the taxi driver Mr Olabe had been called by the two men, apart from the beating he had got.
The man was still receiving medical treatment but there was no up to date medical report in court.
The solicitor for the defendants said it had been quite a struggle for the men to get the money together because one was unemployed and the other working part-time.
Judge Flann Brennan said that further compensation of €1,000 each would have to be paid to Mr Olabe and he put the case back to October 23, telling the Donegal men to come up with the cash by then.