‘Horrific unprovoked attack’ left victim ‘spark out’

Saturday 04 November 2017

Two men who admit an assault that left their victim unconscious, have been sentenced by the Royal Court.

32-year-old Ryan Murphy was given a 15-month prison sentence, and 30-year-old Nathan Harrison a 12-month probation order, for what the prosecution described as a ‘horrific unprovoked attack’.

The court was told the attack happened in the early evening of 17 July. The two men and their victim were part of a group of people who’d been partying at Havre des Pas. They were sat on benches in front of the former La Plage Hotel, which has now been turned into flats, drinking and listening to music.

One of the witnesses living in the flats told the police he saw Murphy grab the victim’s T-shirt or neck and deliver an open-handed swinging slap. He then “lent over the victim and punched him hard to the left side of his jaw. The victim’s head went back and (he) went spark out”.

The witness continued: “When the victim’s head went back onto the wall behind male one (Murphy) stepped back laughed and punched him again in a similar way, I saw him punch the victim at least four times in the same way with a hard punch”.

The assault was videoed by a second witness, and according to court documents another man in the group appeared to try and take the victim’s pulse and comments that the victim is not breathing. It was at this point that Harrison became physically involved. He slapped the victim several times to the left of his face. The victim was clearly unconscious. As one member of the group tried to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation Murphy stepped in and poured an orange liquid from a plastic bottle over the victim’s head.

It was later claimed in his defence that Murphy’s actions were an attempt to revive the victim.

Witnesses called the police and told officers that at no point did they see the victim offer any violence to the defendants, nor did he try to defend himself. One described the attack as ‘horrific’ and another remarked on how he was struck by how unconcerned the two defendants were about the victim being unconscious.

The victim was treated at hospital and told the police he couldn’t recall anything about the attack and only remembered waking up the following morning with a sore face.

Although both men were originally charged with a grave and criminal assault, the Crown later accepted Harrison’s involvement hadn’t been as serious as Murphy’s and accepted his reduced plea of guilty to common assault.