A young Dubliner will be sentenced before Christmas after he was found guilty of a vicious assault on two American tourists in the city centre.
New York stockbroker Garth Russell was left with a permanent scar on his face after he was attacked with a glass in the Temple Bar tourist Mecca.
A Dublin court heard that Russell’s career has suffered as he no longer meets clients face to face due to his scars. He still has glass embedded in his face.
His brother Patrick suffered a broken arm when they were attacked by a group after trying to stop a robbery in April 2012.
Anthony Clifford, a 23-year-old from Drimnagh, pleaded guilty to two counts of violent disorder in Temple Bar when he appeared at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring called it ‘an outrageous attack’ according to a report in the Irish Times.
She warned Clifford that he faces a consecutive sentence as he was on bail at the time of the offence for a hijacking.
Police officer Amanda Flood told the court that the American brothers were walking through the Temple Bar area in the evening when they came across a man lying on the ground surrounded by a group of youths.
Garth Russell stepped in when he realised the man was being robbed.
Officer Flood said the group began throwing punches when the brothers threatened to call police.
As the brothers fled, they were hit with an assortment of bottles and other missiles taken from a bin.
The court heard that the Russells tried to get into several taxis to escape but the drivers would not let them in.
The youths caught up with them and began hitting them with the bottles. The report says Garth was hit in the face with glass and got a blow to the back of the head after which ‘everything went dark’.
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