A professional rugby player from Dublin, Ireland, has been ordered to pay a man €10,000 in compensation after flooring him during a poker game in April 2012.
I am currently in Dublin.
I was invited to play in a poker event.
After learning of the fate of 57-year old Michael Frisby, I might have to buy myself a gum shield.
Frisby suffered three broken bones, in his face, after being floored by a punch from former professional rugby player Neilus Keogh, 27, after a poker hand that went awry in April 2012.
The Irish Times reported that the pair were playing in a nine-handed poker game, in Dublin’s The Sporting Emporium, when Keogh lost a pot, stood up and floored the man twice his age. He topped things off with a chair shot whilst the Frisby was floored.
Keogh, who was playing for Nottingham at the time, did not have his contract renewed due to the ‘adverse publicity’ of the case. The Times reported that Keogh currently plays amateur rugby for London Irish and works as a building construction worker earning £350 per week.
He was found guilty of Assault Causing Harm by the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, and ordered to pay €10,000 in damages. Judge Patrick McCartan also ordered Keogh to undergo anger management classes.
Speaking at the trial, Judge McCartan said that the loss of Keogh’s career was “a very regrettable but nonetheless an almost inevitable consequence of his wrong doing.”
Frisby had to undergo surgery following the incident. He now has two metal plates screwed into his face by eight steel screws.
Keogh was said to have shown remorse during his trial. The Judge wished him well for the future, and imposed the Probation Act, meaning that there would be no conviction held against his name.
