Dundalk court: Lengthy sentences for assault of woman and elderly man

Two men who beat up a man in his 60s in Meath and threatened him at knife point, the day after they attacked a woman in her home in Louth, were given lengthy sentences at Dundalk Circuit Court last week.

Cosmin Mihai (23) and Catalin Jimi Munteanu (43) who had arrived in Ireland days before two separate incidents in the Dundalk and Trim garda districts.

Shortly before 10.30pm on May 15th 2022, the pair entered the sitting room of a woman living on Bachelors Walk Dundalk, wearing medical face masks.

Munteanu was holding ‘a big knife’ and the younger man had a baton which she was hit over the head with and the victim told gardai she couldn’t remember if the older man had hit her with a baton or a fist and when she told him she had children to stop him from hurting her he replied “I don’t care”.

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They left with €2,400 in cash, her debit card, two mobile phones and 25 packs of Romanian cigarettes. Some of these items were found when gardai investigating the second incident searched an apartment in Athlone.

The day after the Dundalk aggravated burglary, the pair entered the home of a man in his 60s at the Hill of Down, Enfield.

He told gardai he sustained a blow to the side of his head before the pair jumped on his back and he was beaten on the face and Munteanu stuffed cotton wool into his mouth, causing him difficulty in breathing.

He said the pair kept hitting him and his hands were tied behind his back, and his legs were tied with a pair of tights. The victim’s 17 year old Jack Russell, who was a bit deaf, came running and the next thing he heard was him being kicked in the kitchen and "going silent".

The man was then picked up and put on a bed, where one of the accused kept demanding money and made a stabbing gesture with a knife.

As they left, Mihai, who had thrown water over him to cool him, had placed the victim’s rosary beads in his chest pocket and patted his head. 

The man said he appeared to have some humanity but the other ‘had none at all’. 

They stole €200 in cash, over €11,000 worth of jewellery and a mobile phone and the dog, which had suffered a head fracture, was euthanized a week later.

Mihai, who had no previous convictions, told gardai they didn’t intend to hurt anyone and had thought the house was unoccupied and he claimed the dog injured itself when he threw him on the floor. 

His co-accused had seven previous convictions, including attempted murder.

The court heard the man has not returned to his home since the incident and is now in assisted living accommodation where his wife is his carer.

Judge Dara Hayes sentenced both men to consecutive sentences.

Munteanu was jailed for 15 years and Mihai was sentenced to 12 and a half years with the final 12 months suspended, on him entering a bond to be of good behaviour post release and placing himself under the supervision of the Probation Service for 18 months, and engaging with a restorative justice programme. 

The sentences were backdated to when both men went into custody after their arrest in May 2022.