Longford woman jailed for ten months for "nasty and horrible" bottle attack that left victim scarred

Nineteen year old Rosaleen Ward was given two weeks to make arrangements before she goes into custody for a “nasty and horrible attack” on Tori McGreevey on July 23, 2021 at 28 Oakvale, Longford.

The defendant, who resides at 15 Palace Drive, Longford, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for the charges of assault causing harm and producing an article, a broken bottle, in the course of a dispute.

State witness Garda Clare Hardiman outlined to the court details of the events that surrounded the assault. The victim, Ms McGreevey, was at a party with her boyfriend, Michael McDonagh. There was an incident and Ms McGreevey went to leave the party at around 9:40pm.

As she was going Rosaleen Ward and Peter Keenan arrived. Ms Ward confronted Ms McGreevey at the front of the house. The defendant started shouting: “Who hit Margaret Maria?” before picking up a glass bottle, smashing it off a wall and hitting Ms McGreevey four times causing cuts to the face, arms and back.

Garda Hardiman said an earlier incident saw the defendant's sister splashed by water at the party. The Garda described the victim as “terrified by the attack” and had attended MiDoc and later Mullingar General Hospital for treatment.

Ms McGreevey received seven stitches to her face and was treated for a number of wounds to her back and shoulder.
Photos of the lacerations were handed in to court and details of a 15cm cut to the back and a 5cm cut to the face were in the medical report. The Garda witness said “Ms McGreevey was traumatised by the incident and it left very anxious. She has scarring on her face and back.”

In her Victim Impact Statement she described not being able to sleep for a long time, particularly coming up to court date. The victim said it was “on her mind all the time” and spoke of suffering panic attacks.

“I am afraid to go out and socialise. I am very down in myself and I don’t feel over it yet,” the VIS stated, “I will never forget or forgive this completely unprovoked attack.”

In a Garda interview Ms Ward denied the attack, but confirmed her presence at the location. Counsel for the defendant, Niall Flynn BL, said his client has only recently given birth and has no previous convictions.

Mr Flynn said the offending bottle was not brought to the location. This incident happened seven days after Ms Ward's 18th birthday. Counsel said his client had €5,000 in court to give to the victim, however Ms McGreevey indicated she did not want to take it.

Rosaleen Ward took to the witness stand. The defendant expressed her remorse for the incident saying she was “very sorry and never meant to cause hurt”. She described it as “an argument that escalated very quickly” and added she would “never forgive herself” and hoped the victim can forgive her.

Ms Ward apologised for the stress, hurt and aggravation to the victim and her family. She turns 20 in July, has a four month old child, and made a promise to never go near the victim again.

A probation report described her as being “at low risk of reoffending”. She was previously employed in Center Parcs.

“This was a spontaneous assault,” Judge Kenneth Connolly said in his summation, “Although she was a very young woman at the time this was an opportunistic assault in which she inflicted serious injuries.”

The judge noted the maximum sentence is five years, but said Ms Ward could have been prosecuted for a more serious charge: “There are very clear and obvious aggravating factors. This was a nasty and horrible attack with a broken bottle to multiple areas. The scarring will be semi-permanent, if not permanent.

“Taking all the matters into consideration the appropriate sentence is three and a half years in prison, it was a serious assault and fortunately it was not more,” the judge said.

Judge Connolly observed that the age of the defendant afforded her “more latitude” and said prison was a “last resort”. He added that Ms Ward had no previous convictions, had not contacted the injured party since the offence, had not come to Garda attention and stated that his job was not to seek revenge, but to administer justice.

The judge said although the defendant's apology seemed heartfelt the charges were “too serious to avoid some custodial element”.

The judge's mitigation allowed him to reduce the sentence to two years in custody, but said he would suspend the final 14 months of that term on condition Ms Ward entered a bond to be of good behaviour and have no unsolicited contact with the victim for a period of three years upon her release.

“Hopefully there will be no further bad blood between the parties,” Judge Connolly said and he concluded by directing that the committal warrant issue on the 22nd of May to afford the defendant time to make arrangements for the care of her child.