Man who lay in wait and assaulted woman he was having affair with jailed for two years

Isabel Hayes

A man who lay in wait for the woman he was having an extra-marital affair with and assaulted her on the street has been jailed for two years.

Florea Hoza (57) initially claimed that the woman, who worked as a cleaner for his company, was acting “provocatively” to other men. It emerged in his Probation Service report that he was having an affair with her. He then claimed she was putting him under pressure to come clean to his wife about their relationship.

Hoza, of Grove Park, Rathmines, Dublin, pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing harm to the woman at Harold's Cross Road on February 23rd, 2024.

The court heard that on the day in question, Hoza got into an argument with the woman in the canteen of their workplace, and he slapped her twice across the face, causing her to fall to the ground. He also tried to hit her with a hard hat.

The woman avoided him for the rest of the day, but when she was walking home from work that evening, Hoza lay in wait for her and attacked her from behind. He punched her a number of times to the face and headbutted her, pursuing her across the road in heavy traffic.

The woman tried to hail down cars to alert them to her plight, but no one stopped. Gardaí were alerted, and when they arrived on the scene, they found Hoza “looming” over the woman with a clenched fist, as she lay on the ground with blood on her head and on the ground.

The woman suffered a number of facial injuries, including blurred vision and nasal pain.

When arrested, Hoza initially tried to say that his head “collided” accidentally with the woman's. He also denied that he lay in wait for her and said he came across her walking home from work.

Hoza has no previous convictions. He had a token of remorse of €5000 in court for the woman, but she did not wish to accept it. It is to be given to Women's Aid instead.

The Probation Service found that Hoza does not pose an immediate risk within an intimate partner relationship unless he embarks on another extramarital affair as his wife lives in Romania and the woman has left the country.

Sentencing him on Monday, Judge Martina Baxter noted Hoza has limited insight into his offending and there was an absence of genuine remorse. She set a headline sentence of four years, which she reduced to three years, taking his guilty plea into account.

She suspended the final year on a number of conditions.