Andrew Carey
A LIMERICK man who stabbed his attacker in the face with a five-inch kitchen knife has been jailed for four years after a Judge was shown the “appalling photos of a knife lodged in a person’s face”.
Sentencing 25-year-old Craig McMahon at Limerick Circuit Court, Judge Tom O’Donnell said that the young father’s stabbing of a man in the face during a dispute outside a city off-licence was “a disproportionate reaction which could have been fatal and something that is not acceptable in a civilised society.”
The court heard that Craig McMahon (25), who was in supported living accommodation with Focus Ireland, went with a friend to an off-licence in Parnell Street on March 16, 2014 when they became involved in a violent clash with two other men on the street outside the shop.
In his evidence, Detective Brian O’Connor told Limerick Circuit Criminal Court that following a review of a substantial amount of CCTV footage, charges of violent disorder were brought against the accused when he became involved in the row with two others.
Det O’Connor said that one of the men tried to pull McMahon to the ground and hit him with a bag of beer cans he had just bought inside.
Several more interactions occurred between the group while the injured party and another man took refuge in the off-licence, McMahon took a knife from his pocket and is seen striking the victim in his left cheek and plunge a knife into the man’s face.
Craig McMahon was arrested three weeks after the incident and charged with violent disorder, along with the three other men involved in the incident.
Judge O’Donnell said that it was a shocking attack as the knife was still lodged in the man’s face when gardai and ambulance paramedics arrived at the scene.
During the sentencing hearing this Monday,Judge O’Donnell remarked that given the facts the court would have presumed that some sort of assault charge could have been preferred by the Director of Public Prosecutions but for the “puzzling circumstances” surrounding the lack of cooperation by the injured party.
Judge O’Donnell said that “matters took a bizarre turn as the injured man did not make a statement of complaint and refused to let gardai obtain his medical files or allow them be disclosed to the court”.
“The only such evidence that you could say was before the court were these horrific pictures tendered by the prosecution”, Judge O’Donnell said.
Noting that the 25-year-old had 27 previous convictions, Judge O’Donnell said that the majority of the offences were connected to public order and road traffic matters.
However, the court heard that McMahon was previously jailed for four years, with 12 months suspended, in July 2010 for and assault and the possession with a knife.
Previously, defence counsel Mark Nicholas said that his client was in fear of his life and believed that he was under threat from serious criminals who wanted him dead and added that the parties did not know each other.
Detective O’Connor said that Gardaí had no note of this and hadn’t warned Craig McMahon of any serious threat as they didn’t believe there was one.
Judge O’Donnell, after hearing that since his imprisonment last April at Castlerea Prison, Craig McMahon had engaged in certain activities including a course on physiology and anatomy as well as an anger management course, said that “the irony of this was not lost on the court”.
Craig McMahon’s letter of apology, Judge O’Donnell said, was considered by the court, as well as the length of time in custody, “which has been to his benefit” in the courses completed.
Jailing McMahon for five years but suspending the last 12 months, Judge O’Donnell said that “self defence was not an issue at any stage” adding that this was a “disproportionate reaction by the accused – something that is not acceptable in a civilised society”.
