Ex-boxer told fiancee to beat up waitress over ‘disrespect’
Friday, September 13, 2013
A British ex-boxer was yesterday jailed after ‘egging’ on his fiancee to beat up an innocent waitress who allegedly disrespected him in a West Cork restaurant.
By Eddie Cassidy William Isaac, described by a judge as a bully boy with “a history of violence”, encouraged his fiancee, Siobhan Ginty, to punch 31-year-old Lucie Kopecka.
During the attack, Isaac, 45, urged Ginty, 23: “Finish her off and do it properly.”
The pair had cornered the waitress in a smoking room in the Gateway Restaurant in Durrus, West Cork, on Apr 7 last. Ms Ginty carried out the attack as Isaac blocked the door.
A chef, Christophe Zilliox, tried to intervene but he was assaulted by Isaac.
After watching about five minutes of the incident on CCTV footage, Judge James McNulty said the assault was “truly shocking, given the thuggery and the violence perpetrated on innocent people”.
At Bantry District Court yesterday, Isaac was jailed for five months and Ginty was jailed for four months after pleading guilty to threatening and abusive behaviour along with common assault charges.
In the witness box Isaac said he took full responsibility and wished he could turn back the clock on what happened in Durrus.
“I’m not trying to justify what happened, but this waitress, from day one, was always very rude. It’s my friend’s restaurant and I like to give him the business. She plainly ignored me for about five minutes. The place was empty. I was very angry.”
Supt Mick Fitzpatrick, prosecuting, said Isaac went home and after drinking a double vodka, the waitress got an abusive phone call from his girlfriend, Ginty, who warned her: “You don’t disrespect my man”.
Supt Fitzpatrick said both arrived in the restaurant and went to the smoking room. “Lucie said Siobhan was shouting ‘Do you know how much you disrespected my man, no one disrespects my man’.
“Billy said: ‘Show her, Siobhan, and she proceeded to punch the waitress full in the face three or four times, and then on the side of the head. She started to wrestle and kick her. Billy had the door of the smoking room blocked. Billy said to her ‘Finish her off, do it properly this time’,” the superintendent said.
Supt Fitzpatrick said the waitress was lucky she didn’t have any serious injuries.
Ms Kopecka, he said, had not worked at the restaurant since the attack.
Judge McNulty, said the video was ten thousand times more effective than any words the superintendent’s evidence could convey.
“While visitors are welcome to enjoy the best of food, and the land and the sea, those who work in the frontlines of the food and hospitality industry, serving people and serving visitors, are entitled to be protected from bullies and those, like William Isaac and Siobhan Ginty, who seem to think it is acceptable to beat and pulverise people.”
Judge McNulty said a fine or community service order was wholly inappropriate and he sentenced the pair to jail.
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