McGregor ex-coach set for court over one-punch killing

UFC champ Conor McGregor with ex-coach Jonathan Dargan

Louise Roseingrave

Criminal proceedings have started relating to the death of a man who died following a one-punch attack in Dublin city.

Paddy Mullally (57) sustained a fatal head injury on his way home from his retirement party when he saw a man harassing a woman and intervened.

Jonathan Dargan - a martial arts expert who formerly trained with UFC champ Conor McGregor - begged forgiveness from the Mullally family for punching the father of one.

Dargan hit former Guinness worker Mr Mullally outside an apartment complex in Harold's Cross in the early hours of March 5, when Mr Mullally tried to intervene in a row.

Fall

Mr Mullally died the next day from the head injury he received when he fell backwards from the punch and hit his head on the ground.

Mr Mullally stopped off at his local, Peggy Kelly's in Harold's Cross, for a drink on his way home from his retirement party.

As he left he spotted Dargan and a woman fighting.

"I'm so sorry. It was an accident. I'm devastated and heartbroken for that man and his family. All I can say is I'm crushed," Dargan previously said.

"If I could take back everything that happened that night I would, but all I can do is beg his family for their forgiveness. It was a genuine mistake."

Sources close to Dargan said he left Lillie's Bordello, where he worked as a doorman, after being out with his partner and got into his car, which he had intended leaving in town for the night. They had earlier been to an Adele concert.

It is believed he told gardai he hit somebody at Harold's Cross and had a row with a second man before another person tried to drag him away.

After he got out of this person's grip he thinks he hit Mr Mullally, grabbed his girlfriend and got back into his car.

Sources say Dargan woke the next day with little recollection of what happened and went to work on Saturday night as normal.

After work, he drove towards his home before pulling into a filling station, where a garda told him they were making inquiries about silver cars that had been out the night before.

He was brought to Terenure Garda Station and questioned. He broke down when he was told of the death of Paddy Mullally of Wainsfort Park, Terenure, Dublin 6.

He was later released without charge with a file to be sent to the DPP.

Seeking a six-month adjournment of an inquest into Mr Mullally's death, Detective Inspector George McGeary of Terenure Garda Station told Dublin Coroner's Court that proceedings have commenced in relation to the case.