Tourist spared conviction for punching taxi driver in face

 • 7h ago

WEATHER FORECAST

Dublin City15°C

A Dutch tourist who punched a Dublin taxi driver in the face after he was told to stop rolling a cigarette in his car has been spared a criminal record.

Jos Krul (32) left the driver with a bruised face and a torn jacket in the assault on a city street.

Krul, from The Hague, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm at Malahide Road, Donnycarney, on December 29 last year.

Judge Bryan Smyth applied the Probation Act after he paid €1,000 in compensation.

Dublin District Court heard the taxi driver picked up the accused on the city’s quays after midnight.

Krul started rolling a cigarette on the back seat and the victim asked him to stop but he continued and the driver stopped the cab and asked him to get out.

Krul pulled the victim’s jacket hood over his head and punched him three times in the face, causing him to fall to the ground.

He fled the scene on foot but was later identified.

Krul, who had been visiting Ireland on holiday, said the driver had tried to physically remove him from the taxi, thinking he was going to smoke in the car, his solicitor Matthew De Courcy said.

It “escalated quite quickly” and Krul reacted disproportionately and wrongly.

He brought €1,000 to court as a token of his contrition, to try to “make good a bad situation”, Mr De Courcy said.

The accused had worked in the motor industry but was currently between jobs, the court heard.