20 May 2023 , 08:05
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A pensioner was put headfirst into a wheelie bin and repeatedly punched in a 42-minute ordeal by a thug who "thought she was a predatory paedophile".
Marie MacGowan, 86, feared for her life when Alex Bailey launched the attack amid an induced psychosis episode, caused due to his level of intoxication.
A court heard MacGowan had 24/7 specialist care for four months after the attack, which happened in a suburb in Dublin, Ireland, in September last year.
The victim has since lost her sense of independence and was so traumatised she struggled to walk for weeks, the Irish Mirror reports.
Bailey, 30, was last week jailed for two and a half years after pleading guilty to assaulting the woman causing her harm.
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Jack MacGowan, the victim's son, spoke to the press outside the court after sentencing (Collins Courts)Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told the thug met the woman in the suburb at around 2am, and CCTV footage from the night shows he remained in her company for over an hour.
The footage shows Bailey assaulting the woman sporadically for 42 minutes, including knocking her to the ground, putting her head first into a wheelie bin and applying pressure to the lid of the bin.
The bin falls over, and as the woman tries to get out, she is punched in the face and kicked to the body.
The woman feared she was going to be killed and later told Gardaí: "I really thought I was going to be dead."
Bailey who is from Claragh, Ramelton, Donegal, was under "the delusional belief that the victim was a predatory paedophile," Garda Paul O’Donnell told the court.
The case was heard at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court (Getty)A victim impact statement from the woman’s son Jack MacGowan said that leaving his mother in a bin that night “nearly killed her”.
"It has impacted her life in a major way and significantly reduced her quality of life," he added.
The mum lost her sense of balance and was obsessed with her "near-death experience", repeating regularly, “Please stop killing me,” and “Are you trying to kill me?” She suffered regular bouts of physical shaking and did not sleep well.
Mr MacGowan said the incidents of physical shaking have since reduced considerably but his mother has become withdrawn and is unable to walk unaided. Due to “fall risks”, she is no longer able to live independently and had to move to a nursing home.
He said she has lost her confidence and her dementia has worsened. She is highly unlikely to leave the nursing home and is sad and depressed.
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“Many times, it seems as if she has given up,” the statement continued.