For headbutting a graveyard flower vendor, a “danger to society” who was spending €600 a week on narcotics was sentenced to an additional two years in prison, reports Breaking News.
On December 15, 2020, Alan Melia, 31, of Cherry Orchard Avenue, Ballyfermot, entered a guilty plea to assault causing hurt at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
According to the court, Melia, who was out on bail when the crime was committed, had 113 prior convictions and is currently serving a seven-and-a-half-year term for a 2020 robbery, reports Breaking News.
Detective Garda Jack Walsh informed the court that two males approached the wounded person while he was selling flowers at Palmerstown Cemetery, just as he had done for forty years without any problems.
He informed prosecutor Emer Delargy BL that Melia’s co-accused demanded six euros for many bouquets of flowers from the vendor, threatening to rob him if he didn’t provide them to him. The co-accused was unidentified, the court heard, reports Breaking News.
As he turned to go, Melia gave him a headbutt, breaking his glasses in the process. In addition, the man’s nose was cut.
The co-accused of Melia stated, “You shouldn’t have wound him up.” When the wounded individual arrived at St. James’ Hospital, he needed sutures even though his nose was not broken, reports Breaking News.
Judge Orla Crowe imposed a three-year headline sentence, with the last year suspended under severe guidelines.
She instructed that Melia’s two-year sentence run consecutively with the one she is presently serving.
“This was a horrible assault on a man who for 40 years had a flower stand outside a cemetery,” said the judge. “That is a really important and sensitive role that this man was doing in society,” she added, reports Breaking News.
After he turned away, the judge observed that Melia and his co-accused “set upon him on broad daylight,” dug through his pockets, and gave him a headbutt.
The court stated that the attack had a “profound impact” after reading the victim impact statement and seeing the picture of his sutures and blood-stained spectacles.
The judge stated that there was “only one victim here and that is the injured party,” citing the psychological effects as the most significant aspect, reports Breaking News.
According to a psychiatric study the court had read, Melia had a fairly happy childhood but spent the majority of his adult life behind bars.
The judge acknowledged Melia’s regret and stated that she would want to give his life some order going forward, reports Breaking News.
She said that she needed to consider the victim’s significant effect. She pointed out that at the time of the assault, Melia was out on bail for two other instances.
She said that the wounded person also had to pay €900 for new spectacles, reports Breaking News.
Judge Crowe declared that the standard for a prison sentence had been met since the injured party was “completely blameless selling flowers in broad daylight.”
She said that any additional sentences would have to be consecutive because the one for the robbery case will expire in May 2026, reports Breaking News.
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