Midlands Landscaper Jailed For 'Blackout' Assault Spree

The incident involving Colin Lloyd occurred in March 2024.

A Westmeath man has been spared jail for two bizarre attacks on a charity worker left "fearing for her life", and a university student who awoke covered in blood in a hotel room in Mullingar.

Landscaping foreman, Colin Lloyd (30) of Cumminstown, Ballynacargy, Co Westmeath, claimed he had a blackout from a drinks and drugs binge at the time of the incidents.

He must complete compensation instalments totalling €35,000 by February 2029.

He pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to his randomly targeted victims and burglary, two hours apart in the midlands town, on March 24, 2024.

Finalising the case at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, Judge Keenan Johnson said the two victims were traumatised and Lloyd walked off giving no thought to their injuries or offer of help.

Proceeding to sentencing, he noted several mitigating factors: Lloyd's guilty plea, lack of prior convictions, that it was out of character, his remorse and his belief that cocaine he bought in a pub toilet had been spiked.

He has ceased drinking and drug-use and went to counselling.

The judge imposed concurrent three-year sentences for each assault, and 12 months for burglary, but suspended them on conditions of no further offending in the next five years.

Lloyd had already brought €18,600 compensation.

However, Judge Johnson ordered that he must increase the amount significantly.

On this point, he emphasised that the compensation was not a means to buy his way out of trouble, but an indication of remorse and shame.

He also accepted that Lloyd's apologies were sincere and that he had made efforts to rehabilitate himself.

A condition of his good behaviour bond states he must not drink alcohol and comply with urine testing when required.

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

The court had 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 5.20 am.

They were not known to each other.

Lloyd inflicted a blow on the student who awoke "covered in blood" and was taken by ambulance to the local hospital.

It transpired that he suffered 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 bleeding.

Staff later found Lloyd's wallet, 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 was adamant that he could not remember the incidents. His account was that he had been out with colleagues drinking and paid €50 for cocaine.

The court heard he awoke to find blood on his hands and to learn gardaí were looking to speak with him.

During his garda interview, he stated he had no recollection of either incident and was cooperative.

The court heard he 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.

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 had commissioned urine analysis tests to show that he is now drug-free.

Mr 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 extremely aggressive and bizarre, ordered that €25,000 go to the injured hotel guest and the €10,000 to the woman attacked on the street.