A man who claims to have escaped Al Shabaab in Somalia has been jailed for 16 months after what Judge Martin Nolan called an “arrogant” attack on a stranger.
The Circuit Criminal Court heard that on the 24th of June 2024, Dek Abdi Hassan (31) of Basin View, Dublin 8 pushed Lawrence Kane in the chest causing him to fall to the ground causing a serious hip fracture which necessitated a replacement surgery.
The court heard that Mr Kane, who was 66-years-old at the time, was walking to get lunch at Midnight Express at approximately 12:45pm on North Frederick Street.
After pushing Kane, Hassan – who was aided in court by a Somali interpreter, continued on his way down the road after the “unprovoked” attack which caused the injured party to be “very badly injured”.
After passers-by stopped to assist Mr. Kane was conveyed to the Mater Hospital where two fractures in his wrist and another in his pelvis were discovered.
When Garda Michelle Heffernan of Mountjoy Garda Station was on mobile patrol on the 10th of July 2024 she recognised the accused and arrested him in relation to the assault.
When interviewed, Hassan said he did not remember pushing Mr. Kane, but said that if he did, he would have had a reason.
On the day of the assault, Hassan said he had been put out of the hostel he was staying in, did not sleep for two nights, and “had a drink” after an incident at work. He said that at the time he was “stressed” and accepted that he was “drunk”.
Garda Heffernan told the court that when the accused was questioned, he “didn’t understand the seriousness of the charge”.
He has 1 previous conviction in relation to breaches of Section 4 of the Public Order Act.
In a victim impact statement, the injured party described an “extended period of recovery” and how he is still unable to walk unaided and suffers with “ongoing stiffness”.
Before the assault, Mr Kane was in full time employment, but was forced into early retirement as his “independence” is now “restricted”.
He described a loss of a “sense of purpose” and how his sister now has to perform basic tasks on his behalf such as shopping, paying bills, and looking after the house.
Hassan’s defending counsel, Kevin McKrave BL said that his client “simply pushed Mr. Kane K out of the way,” and that he had been “removed” from his hostel.
McKrave said that Hassan’s father had been killed by Al Shabaab in 2008 and that two of his brothers had also been killed due to “tribal” conflicts in their home country where his client “witnessed summary executions”.
In 2013 he “escaped” by travelling through Ethiopia and eventually reaching France, after being picked up in a boat by the Italian Navy, where he “got involved with drink” before coming to Ireland in 2022.
He previously lived in Waterford but is now in Dublin where he had an address on Gardiner Street.
The court heard he is “quite religious now”, “has little or no English”, and wants to “regularise his situation” in Ireland.
Judge Nolan said that the attack was an “arrogant type of offence” in which it “seems the defendant was thinking this unfortunate man was in his way” and he “just pushed him out of the way,” in a display of “arrogant behaviour”.