A man who attacked an 86-year-old woman by throwing her in a bin after the victim got lost on her way home late at night has been jailed for two and a half years.
The court heard that Alex Bailey, aged 30, suffered from induced psychosis as a result of his drunkenness and under “the delusional belief that the victim was a predatory paedophile”, reports The Mirror.
Bailey met the woman at around 2am in a Dublin suburb and CCTV footage from the night shows he remained in her company for over an hour.
Footage shows Bailey repeatedly assaulting the woman for 42 minutes, including throwing her to the ground, sticking her head first in a garbage can and pressing on the garbage can lid.
The bin fell and when the woman tried to get out she was punched in the face and kicked in the body, Garda Paul O’Donnell told the court.
Fearing she would be killed, the woman later told gardaí, “I really thought I was going to be dead,” reports The Mirror.
Bailey believed the woman was a man dressed as a woman, defending Patrick Gageby, SC said in court.
Gda O’Donnell told prosecutors Paddy Jackson BL that three students came in and helped the woman. At this point, she was sitting on the curb with her legs stretched out in a bike lane. Her face and hands were bleeding and she was shaking.
Bailey was arrested after gardaí seized hours of CCTV footage. They followed him from the moment he left work that evening before spending time in a number of pubs in Dublin 2 and Dublin 6 and finally meeting the victim. He wore the same clothes throughout.
A victim impact statement from the woman’s son said that leaving his mother in a bin that night “nearly killed her”. “It has impacted her life in a major way and significantly reduced her quality of life,” reports The Mirror.
Gda O’Donnell agreed with Mr Gageby that Bailey told the students who came to help the woman to stay away from her and that she was dangerous and a pedophile.
The lawyer said his client “deeply sorry for the pain and suffering he has caused” and has since “fully engaged with the Rutland Centre” to deal with his alcohol and drug abuse. As a sign of his remorse, he had to offer 10,000 euros in court.
At today’s sentencing, Judge Crowe said that this 30-year-old man, who had a very bad previous record, is now on trial for assaulting an 86-year-old woman, robbing her, who hit, kicked and threw into a dust box.
The judge said she considered the mitigating factors, including Bailey’s early admission of guilt, the fact that the injured party did not have to testify, his remorse, his good work experience and the significant work he had done while in custody to to rehabilitate himself.
Judge Crowe sentenced him to three years in prison retrospectively from the time of his imprisonment. To give Bailey an incentive, she suspended the last six months on the condition that he keep the peace and behave well for two years after his release.
He must abstain from all alcohol and drugs, attend the Rutland Center for one year after his release, and agree to a random urine test, reports The Mirror.
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