A DUBLIN five-a-side football player has been handed a two-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence after seriously injuring an opposing player during a game.
Petru Pinto from Tyrrelstown has also been ordered to pay his victim €5,000 after admitting to a charge of reckless assault causing harm.
The charges came as a result of a tackle during a five-a-side game in Dublin back in 2012 that left the recipient Paul Ceusan with a split kidney.
According to the Daily Post, a court was told how the 50-year-old Pinto had argued with Ceusan during the game and in the minutes leading up to the tackle.
The challenge saw Pinto run towards him, jumping into Ceusan in a move that saw Pinto’s knees hit his opponent’s side, causing him to fall.
Causan was left with a badly torn kidney as a result of the challenge.
It was an injury that saw him fitted with a stent to help repair the damage and reconnect the kidney to his bladder.
Ceusan was off work for 20 weeks as a result of the incident.
The tackle has also left him with medical problems like high blood pressure and a loss of kidney function.
A jury initially failed to reach a verdict on whether Pinto had set out to cause deliberate injury. He admitted to being reckless in his tackle.
Both Pinto and Ceusan previously played football professionally in Romania before moving over to Ireland.
