A man has been handed a four-month jail sentence and been banned from all McDonald's restaurants for what has been described as a "vicious", pre-meditated attack.

26-year-old Harmony Mayitonda, of Hansfield, Clonee, Dublin 15, was also fined €500 after pleading guilty to violent disorder at McDonald's in Rathmines on January 12th, 2017.

Dublin District Court heard the injured man, who was a student, was sitting down when two men and a woman approached.

Warehouse worker Harmony Mayitonda "suddenly" punched him before the group of three attacked.

The accused stood on a table and kicked the victim, while his accomplices were beating the man.

The victim suffered minor cuts and swelling and declined to give a statement to Gardaí.

'Vicious'

The judge recalled the "ferocity, intensity and viciousness of the assault" from the video evidence, where a table was broken and "uprooted from the floor".

The defence barrister pleaded for leniency, telling the court the accused was in full-time work and had believed the victim had harassed and inappropriately touched a woman known to him at a social occasion.

The judge described it as vicious, premeditated and unprovoked; however, he gave Mayitonda credit for his guilty plea and noted he had no prior convictions.

Sentence

He said a jail term was appropriate and imposed a six-month sentence, with the final two months suspended on condition Mayitonda does not offend in the next two years.

The judge ordered him to pay a fine, complete an educational course, never contact the victim and "stay out of all McDonald's branches".

A woman who took part in the incident was given a 10-month suspended sentence, and a teen was given a juvenile caution for his role earlier.

Main image is a file photo showing delivery riders outside McDonalds in Rathmines, 15-01-2021. Image: NurPhoto SRL / Alamy.

Reporting from Tom Tuite at Dublin District Court.