Suspended sentence for Derry man who attacked Donegal Garda

A man who seriously assaulted a garda in Donegal has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Michael Lynn is already serving a sentence for a separate savage attack with a baseball bat that left a woman unconscious and with a shattered jaw.

Lynn appeared before Letterkenny District Court in connection with an incident in Milford.

He was charged that he assaulted Garda Liam O’Riordan causing him harm at Millstone Cottages, Milford on March 13, 2021. The charge is contrary to section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.

A 27-year-old with an address at Bonds Hill, Derry, Lynn appeared by video link from Magilligan Prison in Derry, where he is in custody following a savage attack on a family group in Derry city centre that left a woman unconscious and requiring major surgery.

Lynn has been given a prison sentence of 10 months for the attack on Garda O’Riordan with the entirety of the sentence suspended for two years

Lynn, under close watch by a prison guard, spoke only to say “yes” when asked if he followed what was happening in court and if he could confirm that he would obey the terms of a section 99 bond relating to the suspended sentence.

His solicitor, Mr Frank Dorrian, informed him that the court was prepared to impose a wholly suspended sentence provided that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for the duration of the suspension.

“If you deviate from that,” Mr Dorrian told his client, “you will have to come to serve the sentence”.

Judge Éiteáin Cunningham said she deemed the offence to be “of the most serious nature and at the upper end of the jurisdiction”.

The Judge stressed that it was only due to the sentence already being served by Lynn at Magilligan and stressing and the State’s position on the matter that a suspended sentence was considered in the matter.

Judge Cunningham said: “The Court does not condone in any way what happened”.

In September 2023, Lynn was given a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence at Belfast Crown Court and is serving his sentence in Magilligan, a medium security prison near Limavady.

Lynn pleaded guilty to one count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

READ NEXT: Derry filmmaker Desmond Lynch releases short film inspired by BBC drama Fleabag

Half of the sentence is to be served in custody with the other half on licence. Lynn’s license was also extended for an additional three years.

On February 2, 2020 at Strand Road, Derry, Lynn attacked one man, hitting him in the face with a baseball bat. He also attacked two women with the weapon, one of whom was knocked unconscious and suffered a shattered jaw, an injury that necessitated corrective surgery.

Speaking after Lynn was sentenced, PSNI Detective Sergeant Marks described the incident as a “savage, ferocious and cowardly attack”.

Lynn was granted bail in 2021, but failed to appear for trial later that year.

However, in March 2022 he was arrested and remanded by police in Scotland.