Man (30) faces jail for bizarre 'blackout' assault spree

Tom Tuite

A charity worker was left "fearing for her life", and a university student awoke in his hotel room covered in blood after a "bizarre" random spree of violence in Mullingar, a court has heard.

Landscaping foreman, Colin Lloyd (30) of Cumminstown, Ballynacargy, Co Westmeath, claimed he suffered a blackout after a cocktail of drinks and drugs.

He pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to his two victims within about two hours and trespassing on March 24th, 2024.

The first took place at around 3:30am along the Midlands town’s Austin Friar Street.

Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court heard that the woman in her 50s had returned from Dublin, where she had been working at a soup kitchen to help homeless people.

She was waiting for her husband to collect her when Lloyd approached and began stroking her hat without speaking to her.

She told him to stop, and he walked off but returned and began punching her.

He knocked her down by her jacket over her head and "started kicking me" while she could not see.

The court heard the woman screamed at him to stop, and he ran away while she was left with blood pumping from her nose.

She was left in shock, scared and badly bruised.

Her victim impact statement revealed that since then, she has nightmares where he is kicking her, but she cannot see his face.

Garda Sergeant Deborah Macken said the second victim that night was a student from Galway University who came to Mullingar with a choral society for a music event in the town.

He was staying in the Annebrook House Hotel, a short distance from the first incident.

The student went to bed but left his shoe in the doorway to keep it open so his friend could get in, the court heard.

However, Lloyd, who still had blood on his hands, entered the hotel and went into the young man's room at 5:20am. They were not known to each other.

Lloyd inflicted a blow on a student who awoke "covered in blood" and was taken by ambulance to the local hospital. It emerged that he had a fractured cheekbone.

CCTV was shown with the on-street attack captured in full, and the hotel incident footage from a corridor showed the victim emerge from his room bewildered and looking at his blood-covered hand as Lloyd walked off and returned with a towel before rummaging in the room, looking for his wallet, but did not find it and left.

Staff later found it, and that led to him being tracked down.

The hotel guest remained in the hospital for seven days, and could not eat properly for three or four weeks. He expressed in his impact statement that he required facial reconstruction surgery, and his face looked different now.

He moved home, but he still finds it difficult to relax and has trouble sleeping.

Father-of-one Lloyd contended he could not remember the incidents.

He told the court he had been out with colleagues drinking and paid €50 for a supply of cocaine in the toilet from a man in a pub. The court heard he had no memory of the incident and woke to find blood on his hands and to learn gardaí were looking to speak with him.

It was accepted that during his garda interview, he stated he had no recollection of either incident and was cooperative.

The court heard he had no prior convictions, had worked in his current job for the past six years and was the sole carer for his mother following the death of his father five years ago.

He apologised in court to both the victims and said his actions that night were not in his character. He had also saved €17,000 as compensation for the victims.

Questioned by his defence senior counsel, John Shortt, the accused said he drank socially and was a recreational user of cannabis and occasionally cocaine.

He has paid for urine analysis tests to show that he is now drug-free.

Shortt, citing precedent, urged the judge to consider a suspended sentence. He contrasted Lloyd's background with many defendants who have a history of continued offending from their teens into their twenties.

Judge Johnson, who described the incidents as serious and bizarre, ordered that €12,000 go to the injured hotel guest and the €5,000 to the woman attacked on the street.

Sentencing was adjourned until a date in May.