Tourist who swung girlfriend by her hair outside garda station gets 60-day sentence

Lewis Good (28) from Brony Y Waun, Chirk, Wrexham, in Wales, received a 60-day prison sentence.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court to a litany of charges arising from his first night of a two-day city break.

Judge John King was told that in the early hours of Saturday, Store Street gardai heard a "female screaming just outside the door of the station".

They saw the accused and his girlfriend at the taxi rank at Bus Aras.

“As the male was shouting, he grabbed her with two hands by the hair and swung the female around,” the court heard.

The judge also heard "her feel left the ground".

Two gardai ran out and caught Good "stumbling away"; there was "a very strong smell of liquor" from him.

He refused to give his identity and was taken to the station, where he became abusive and still refused to divulge his name or address.

He called gardai scumbags and c***s, threatened to head-butt them, and kicked out before being put in a cell.

The court granted him legal aid.

The judge noted Good’s girlfriend, who did not wish to give a victim impact statement, had no visible injuries.

Good pleaded guilty to assault, violent behaviour in a garda station, threatening and abusive behaviour and being intoxicated in public, and refusing to give his name.

Solicitor Conor McGreevy pleaded for leniency and asked the judge to note that the accused had no prior convictions.

He said Good arrived in Dublin on Friday and began drinking "very heavily".

However, he was "profoundly apologetic" to gardai and his partner.

The court heard he was in full-time employment and had a permanent address with his family in the UK.

The lawyer asked the judge to note the early guilty plea and how Good met the case.

The assault was under section two of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act for an attack that did not result in physical injury. It carries a maximum six-month sentence.

Judge King imposed a 60-day sentence for that charge; the remaining offences were taken into consideration.

Judge King set recognisances in the event of an appeal by Good, bail in his bond of €1,000 with a €500 cash lodgement.