Shell security guard who assaulted nurse and garda gets off with suspended sentence

Wednesday July 25, 2007 19:26

by William of Orange

A Shell security guard who pleaded guilty to assaulting a nurse and a garda at Mayo general hospital on New Year's Eve received a suspended sentence last week.

A Shell security guard at the Bellanaboy Site last January.

A security guard, employed at the disputed site of the proposed Shell/Statoil refinery at Bellanaboy, County Mayo, has been fined €500 for assaulting a nurse and sentenced to three months suspended. The man, an Australian national, was fined a further €500 for also assaulting a garda and sentenced to three months suspended to run concurrently.

The suspension of sentences and the treatment of the guilty man are in stark contrast to the prison sentences recently given to protesters against the refinery.

Judge Mary Devins said she was taking into account the fact the man, Andrew Tuni, had no previous convictions and she accepted his claim that he was suffering from trauma at the time of his assaults on the garda and the nurse.

Mr.Tuni, who pleaded guilty to the assaults, said that he couldn't remember what had happened at the hospital and claimed he had been assaulted himself in night club in Belmullet earlier on the same night.

Last New Year's eve he had been drinking at home before going out to a nightclub where he had more to drink and was involved in a fracas where he claims he was hit on the head with a bottle. He went to Mayo General Hospital for treatment where he made racist comments, and assaulted both a nurse and a garda.

The Shell Security Guard, who is currently living in Belmullet, was originally brought before the court in May of this year, but the case was put back to allow for a medical report to be obtained.

Judge Devins said she treated all cases of assault very seriously. Nevertheless the District Court judge let the Shell employee off with a suspended sentence and a total fine of 1,000 euro.

Three protesters against the Shell refinery were recently sentenced to three and four month prison sentences for allegedly assaulting a garda during a demonstration against the government-backed Shell scheme to pipe untreated odourless gas across farmland to a huge onshore refinery.

Another type of Shell security guard