Breaking: 6 years for former kickboxing champion from Tipperary whose kicks “physically lifted” robbery victim “off the ground”

A former kickboxing champion whose kicks “physically lifted” the victim of a robbery “off the ground”, has had his 6 year jail term upheld by the Court of Appeal. 

Eddie Barnaville (23), from Boulick, Gortnahoe, Co Tipperary had pleaded guilty to two robberies within 24 hours of each other on Liberty Square and Kickham Street in Thurles in January 2016. 

He was given consecutive five year sentences, totalling 10 years, with the final four years suspended by Judge Thomas Teehan at Nenagh Circuit Criminal Court on April 28, 2017. 

Barnaville lost an appeal against the severity of his sentence today (Thursday 1st November 2018) with the Court of Appeal holding that the gravity of the offences was “correctly assessed” and the mitigating factors “adequately reflected”.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice John Edwards said the first victim, a Mr Kevin Barry, had been standing outside a pub smoking a cigarette when he was punched by another male to the side of the head. While Mr Barry was lying on the ground, Barnaville took a mobile phone from his pocket and then kicked him seven or eight times. 

Mr Justice Edwards said the viciousness of the assault on Mr Barry was conveyed by CCTV footage which showed “his body being physically lifted from the ground with each kick”.

Some five hours later, Barnaville was involved in an altercation with a man outside Supermac’s in Thurles. A Mr Aldis Groakes was talking to a female in Barnaville’s company when Barnaville grappled with him, tripped him to the ground and kicked him in the stomach a number of times. 

Subsequently, and with his victim seemingly unconscious, Barnaville took belongings from the victim’s pocket, before again kicking him several times into the face, head and body while he lay unconscious. 

Mr Justice Edwards said Barnaville had won national and international awards for kickboxing. 

He had 23 previous convictions including 11 under the Public Order Act, four for possession of a controlled substance, two for criminal damage and one for entering a building with intent to commit an arrestable offence. 

Mr Justice Edwards said the Court of Appeal could not agree with a submission that the sentencing judge “over assessed”’ the gravity of the case. 

He said the two robberies, which occurred within 24 hours of each other, both “targetted victims in situations of vulnerability”. 

Although the victims in both instances were not in a position to offer resistance because of their semi-conscious states, “they were viciously kicked and kicked repeatedly into their chest and stomach area before property was stolen from their persons”. 

Mr Justice Edwards said it was “particularly egregious” that in the robbery of Mr Gorakes, who was fully unconscious, Barnaville assaulted him a second time while he was helpless by further kicking him several times into the face, head and body. 

He said Barnaville’s culpability was “significant”. He was on bail at the time, the attacks were intentionally committed in the “throes of self-induced intoxication”, and both attacks involved “extreme violence gratuitously administered to vulnerable victims”. 

He said the sentencing judge’s approach to the assessment of gravity was “impeccable”. 

He said a four-year discount to take account of the mitigating factors - Barnaville’s guilty plea, his youth, remorse, apologies, substance abuse problems, adversities in life and his efforts to date at rehabilitation - was adequate, “and even generous”, in circumstances where he had been “effectively caught red-handed on CCTV”. 

Mr Justice Edwards, who sat with President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, said the court was satisfied that gravity was “correctly assessed” and mitigation “adequately reflected”. The appeal was therefore dismissed.