A judge has jailed a 23-year old Connemara man for the ‘vicious’ hotel room assault in Shannon on his then girlfriend that resulted in her losing two front teeth.
At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford has imposed a one year eight month prison term on Gearoid Wallace for the assault on Linda Keady that is consecutive to the sentence Mr Wallace is currently serving.
That prison sentence expires at the end of next May and Judge Comerford said that Mr Wallace is due to be sentenced for other serious offences at Galway Circuit Court in January.
Judge Comerford said that Ms Keady had gone through “a terrifying situation ” in the hotel room at the Oakwood Arms Hotel in Shannon and the assault was carried out by Mr Wallace in the sinister circumstance of the privacy of a hotel room.
Judge Comerford said that another aggravating factor was that the two were in a relationship at the time.
He said that the attack had resulted in significant psychological trauma for Ms Keady and “was a very serious offence”.
In the case, Mr Wallace of Tuairin Beal, An Daingin, Co Galway had pleaded guilty to the assault causing harm of Linda Keady at hotel room 204 at the Oakwood Arms hotel in Shannon on October 16th 2021.
Counsel for the State, Lorcan Connolly SC (instructed by State Solicitor, Aisling Casey) said that Ms Keady in her statement to Gardai said that Mr Wallace punched her four times in the face in the hotel room.
The two had been out socialising together earlier after getting back together in the on-off relationship and had returned to the hotel room late at night.
Mr Connolly said that Ms Keady told Gardai that Mr Wallace knocked a bottom tooth out with his second punch and as she kneeled down on the floor to look for her tooth, Mr Wallace kicked her in the ribs.
Garda Barry Doherty of Shannon Garda Station said that Ms Keady lost one tooth during the assault and another had to be extracted at a later date because of the trauma to the tooth sustained in the attack.
Garda Doherty said that Mr Wallace was highly intoxicated at the scene and had blood on his face from scratch marks from Ms Keady as she tried to defend herself.
Mr Wallace has 74 previous convictions including 52 for traffic offences and was on bail for traffic offences at the time of the assault.
In her victim impact statement read out by Garda Doherty, Ms Keady said:
“The actions of Gearoid Wallace have greatly affected my life. Since the night of the assault on October 16th 2021, I have become a shell of who I once was.
The Co Galway woman said: “I was a very happy, positive and outgoing person and I cannot ever see myself being that way again.”
She added: “He attacked me viciously that night resulting in the damage and consequently the loss of my two bottom front teeth.”
“There is a saying that goes ‘smile and the world smiles with you’ I lost my ability to smile.
“I am a hairdresser – but it came to the point where I had lost all my confidence in my work as I no longer felt comfortable speaking or smiling.
“I still wake often in the middle of the night gasping for air, having nightmares of being in that room again and that he will kill me.”
“I am almost 30 years old and I feel like I have lost the last three years of my life. I deserve to live in peace and feel safe wherever I go.”
“I want to be able to walk my dog alone in peace, even take a drive and not feel afraid. Every woman does.”
“I have had to come face to face with Mr Wallace at many court sittings since the night of the assault and I feel like I am back in that hotel room again. I am still to this day repaying financial debt due to the cost of my dental work.”
The court was told that subsequent to the assault, Mr Wallace breached a Domestic Violence Safety Order in January 2023 that Ms Keady obtained against him.
Counsel for Mr Wallace, Keith Concannon BL said that “there is no sugar coating it, this was a very serious incident, incredibly traumatic for Ms Keady and she is left dealing not only with the emotional scars but the financial fall-out”.
Mr Concannon said that his client wanted to make a wholesome apology to Ms Keady for his actions that night and thereafter.
Mr Concannon said that his client was addicted to alcohol at age 12 and to cocaine at 14 and left school early.
He said that his client makes good money when he does work as a steel fabricator but the elephant in the room is his addiction to drink and drugs.
He said that Mr Wallace has openly admitted that drink and drugs have ruined his life and that he wants to get treatment for his addictions.
