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Stefan Bornac: one punch left a Dublin tourist fighting for life

The Romanian-born teenager stepped from a car and launched an unprovoked attack on two English visitors. Thomas Oliver spent three weeks in an induced coma, lost half his muscle mass and had to learn to walk again.

Published 28 July 2026 · Remigration Ireland case ledger
2 victimsUnprovoked assaults
3 weeksInduced coma
3¾ yearsActive sentence
€372kConditional illustration

Thomas Oliver was visiting Dublin with university friends over Easter 2022. A slight exchange with people in a car stopped at lights was followed by sudden violence: passenger Stefan Bornac got out, walked over and struck Oliver in the temple with considerable force.

An attack without warning

Oliver had no opportunity to defend himself. He fell unconscious. Bornac then punched Oliver's friend James Lightly repeatedly, knocked him down and kicked him in the head.

Oliver spent five and a half weeks in hospital, including three weeks in an induced coma. Doctors warned his family that he might die or sustain brain damage. He lost half his muscle mass, had to relearn how to walk and was left with headaches, no sense of smell and an impaired sense of taste.

Two guilty pleas

Bornac pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm to Oliver and assault causing harm to Lightly. The sentencing judge described the conduct as irrational, unprovoked and unexpected. Although the court did not find that Bornac intended the catastrophic result, it held that a savage punch carried the obvious risk of grave injury.

Bornac, who was 19, had no previous convictions and had not come to adverse Garda attention before or after the incident. His age, guilty plea, cooperation, work history and previous good character reduced the sentence.

The final sentence

In March 2023 Dublin Circuit Criminal Court imposed four and a half years with the final nine months suspended, leaving an active custodial term of three years and nine months. Bornac also provided €8,000, raised through a bank loan, for the Oliver family.

The suspended period was conditioned on good behaviour. No located source reports an appeal, deportation order or immigration proceeding.

Case chronology

A transparent cost illustration

The Irish Prison Service reported a 2024 average of €99,072 per available staffed prison space, excluding capital expenditure. Applying it to the three-and-three-quarter-year active term produces a conditional illustration of €371,520.

This is not an invoice. It applies a later system-wide average to a nominal sentence; actual custody, remission, remand credit, historic rates and marginal expenditure differ. It excludes Garda, court, legal-aid and major hospital costs and cannot value the victim's permanent harm.

What the record establishes

The Irish Times identified Bornac as originally from Romania and court proceedings required a Romanian interpreter. No reviewed report establishes asylum, unlawful-entry or deportation status. The adjudicated warning is a sudden city-centre assault that permanently changed a visitor's life despite an offender with no prior record.

Sources