Man Sentenced to 9 Years for Brutally Attacking Woman with Wheel Brace

A man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for attacking a woman with a wheel brace to such an extent that she needed to have her spleen removed following the attack.

Keith Macken, aged 44, of Saint Attracta Road, Cabra, Co Dublin, was charged with assault causing serious harm to the woman just hours after he had met her for the first time.

The father of four pleaded guilty to the attack on Lisa Lynch on 20 October 2023 outside the perimeter fence of Dublin Airport.

He initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea on the first day of a trial after hearing Ms Lynch's direct evidence.

Imposing sentence today, Judge Pauline Codd said that the incident was an unprovoked attack on a particularly vulnerable, defenceless woman.

\"He took out a wheel brace and knocked her unconscious and left her on the side of the road,\" she noted. \"She was left choking on her own blood.\"

Ms Lynch told the court she was drinking some wine in a friend's home in the Portobello area on the night of the attack in October 2023. Her friend’s partner, Macken, arrived and introduced himself.

He joined the women drinking and cooked them a meal before suggesting they all go for a drive. They went for a drive, but returned to bring his partner home as she was so drunk. He and the injured party left again in his car.

Ms Lynch said it was \"all blurry\" but she remembered seeing the airport and an airplane when Macken pulled over, got out and told her to \"get the f**k out of the car\".

She got out and he came towards her with a wheel brace, screamed and hit her with it several times.

She lost consciousness and woke up to blue lights, but remained in and out of consciousness. When she woke up fully, she was in hospital, where she spent nearly three weeks.

In a medical report read to the court, the treating doctor said scans showed a fracture to one of her ribs, as well as lacerations to her liver and spleen, which was bleeding heavily.

She underwent emergency surgery to have the ruptured spleen removed.

The doctor said that she had suffered serious harm, which could have been fatal if not treated.

In her victim impact statement, Ms Lynch said that she suffers a lot of flashbacks, especially when she sees the scar. She wakes up in a state of panic and is afraid to go outside. It has changed her relationship with men and has stopped her socialising.

\"I have gone into myself,\" she said in her statement. \"I'm not the same person I used to be.\"

Garda Sarah Johnson told the court that Macken was disturbed from his attack by an airport worker patrolling the perimeter.

The worker saw Macken with what looked like a wheel brace raised above a person lying on the ground.

The airport worker activated the lights on his vehicle, which lit up the whole road. Macken left the scene and Ms Lynch crawled across the road to the fence.

When Garda Johnson and a colleague arrived at the scene around 8am, they saw the woman in a ditch.

Gda Johnson said that the injured party said that Macken had made advances towards her that night and that she had rejected them.

Kathleen Leader SC, defending, said Macken had been a pro-social member of society until the pandemic, when he had no work, no means of income and no way of socialising. His drinking became significant and it led to the break up of his relationship.

Regarding the attack on Ms Lynch, he told his barrister there was a misunderstanding between them in the car and that this led to an escalation.

\"He reacted in a very inappropriate and disproportionate way,\" said Ms Leader.

She explained that Macken hadn't really come to terms with what he had done until he heard Ms Lynch give evidence.

The judge took into consideration a letter of apology written by Macken, in which he described trauma in his childhood.

Macken also received a separate 18-month sentence after pleading guilty to a burglary at an address in Swords on 29 December 2021.

The court heard that Macken entered his former partner's home uninvited by climbing in a bedroom window.

The judge imposed a total of 10 and a half years on Macken - nine years for the attack on Ms Lynch, and 18 months for the burglary, both to run consecutively.

According to the source: RTE.ie.