Assault victim said his testicle was size of goose egg and he feared he would lose it

Stephen Maguire

Three Co Donegal men beat a man so badly that he feared he was going to lose one of his testicles.

John Paul Boyle told a court how he was kicked so badly that one of his testicles blew up to the size of a goose egg and he feared he would lose it.

The attack arose out of a long-running family dispute with all three accused avoiding going to jail after agreeing to pay their victim a total of €6,000.

Brian Boyle and brothers Oisin and Oran Wallace all pleaded guilty to assaulting John Paul Boyle at Quay Road in Dungloe on September 21st, 2021.

All three appeared at Donegal Circuit Court for sentencing.

Gardaí outlined the incident to barrister for the state, Ms Fiona Crawford, BL.

The court heard how the injured party was walking home along the Quay Road, having attended a number of bars with his girlfriend.

A red car passed them by and then circled back and four men jumped from the car.

They ran towards John Paul Boyle and he tried to run away but tripped.

He tried to protect himself but was repeatedly beaten and given a number of kicks to his testicles and other parts of his body.

One of the men, Brian Boyle, 46, who is a brother of the victim, was carrying a stick in his hand.

The men left and John Paul Boyle and his girlfriend managed to get home but Mr Boyle said he was in extreme pain.

He said he was sore all over and that one of his testicles had swollen up to the size of a goose egg and so he called an ambulance for treatment.

Hospital treatment

He spent a number of days getting treatment at Letterkenny University Hospital and was told at one stage that he may lose one of his testicles.

All three were later arrested but all initially denied they had anything to do with any assault on John Paul Boyle.

Barrister for all three accused men, Mr Peter Nolan, BL, instructed by solicitor Mr Robert Ryan, said the impression had been given that John Paul Boyle didn't know why he was attacked.

But he said the reality was that there had been a long-running family dispute and that one of his clients, Brian Boyle and his family, had been a victim of harassment and intimidation by John Paul Boyle for up to 20 years.

The brothers have not spoken for up to 20 years and simply didn't get on, Mr Nolan added.

The Wallace brothers had nothing to do with this but their younger brother claimed he had been assaulted by Brian Boyle earlier in the night.

Mr Nolan added that the court had been given the idea that this was simply a "random attack" but this was not the case.

He put it to gardaí that there was a background to the case and there had been a family dispute between the Boyles and gardaí said they were aware of it.

The court was told that all three accused men had previous convictions but none for assault.

Garda interviews

All three were again interviewed with gardaí and each explained what had happened on the night and all three admitted they should not have got involved.

All three accused took to the witness stand and apologised to John Paul Boyle.

Both Oisin Wallace, 22 and Oran Wallace, 24, were charged with assault causing harm to John Paul Boyle while Brian Boyle was charged with assault causing harm and also the production of an article, a piece of timber.

Mr Nolan outlined the personal circumstances of all three accused men whom he said regretted getting involved in any way with John Paul Boyle.

Brian Boyle had €5,000 in court by way as a token of remorse for his brother while Oran and Oisin Wallace had €500 to offer.

The men's barrister said this had been a family dispute which had been festering for a long time but there had been no repeat of any such incidents since 2021.

He added that the match that lit the flame for the Wallace brothers was the attack on their brother.

All three of his clients simply now wanted to get on with their lives, he added.

Passing sentence, Judge John Aylmer said he placed the incident at the lower end of the scale and merited a sentence of 18 months in jail for each accused before mitigation.

Provocation

He added that he was satisfied that each of the accused were remorseful and that there had been tokens of remorse offered in court.

He also added that there had been a certain amount of provocation involved in the incident.

Although they were less than enthusiastic in cooperating, they had pleaded guilty and that none of them had come before the courts for assault previously.

He added that because none of the accused had come to adverse attention since 2021, he felt obliged to reduce that sentence to one of 12 months in prison.

Judge Aylmer said he must then consider if he could deal with the matter in a non-custodial way and decided to replace each charge with 240 hours of community service in lieu of the 12 months in prison for each accused.