A man who headbutted a supermarket manager after he was asked to move his car from outside the store has escaped going to jail.
Owen McDonagh viciously assaulted the manager of the local ALDI store in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
Letterkenny District Court heard how Sean Cafferkey had asked McDonagh to move his car from outside his store on Neil T Blaney Road in Letterkenny because it was inconveniencing his customers.
However, when he approached McDonagh, the accused responded by lunging at him with his head and breaking his nose.
McDonagh, aged 20, of the Big Isle, Manorcunningham admitted the attack which took place on May 24th, 2017.
His solicitor, Mr Frank Dorrian said there had been an argument about the positioning of the car before the attack took place.
The court heard that the defendant had six previous convictions including incidents of dangerous driving, theft, and public order offences.
McDonagh had been ordered to pay the store manager €2,500 in compensation for loss of earnings and also for medical expenses and this had been done.
Judge Paul Kelly described the attack as a “disgraceful incident.”
Letterkenny Courthouse (North West Newspix)
He said that despite writing two letters of apology by McDonagh to his victim, he appeared to still place some blame on the store manager for the incident.
“It was a disgraceful incident and resulted in an injury which had a significant impact on the victim.
“He still appears to place to blame on the injured party and this would question his genuineness but I will take it (the apology) at face value. He knew he was not supposed to be parking there,” said Judge Kelly.
Judge Kelly sentenced McDonagh to 80 hours community service in lieu of four months in prison.