A CHEF was jailed for three years with the final 18 months suspended for stabbing a man multiple times with a “large kitchen knife” during a drunken “jealous” rage.
Juris Pudans, a Latvian national who was living and working in Limerick City for a number of years, pleaded guilty before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm and possession of a kitchen knife on New Year’s Day 2021. The State entered a nolle prosequi on the charge of possession of the knife.
Mr Pudans (37), with an address at Parkview Court, Lord Edward Street, Limerick City, was asleep in his apartment when he woke up and could not find his wife. Outlining the facts at Mr Pudan’s sentencing hearing, prosecution barrister John O’Sullivan said that the accused “put two and two together and got five”.
Mr Pudans encountered a male acquaintance in his apartment, who had been doing some DIY work and stayed to have a few festive drinks. He began rowing with the man before walking away and returning with a “large kitchen knife and inflicted injuries to the victim”, the court heard.
The victim, a 45-year-old Iranian national, who had been drinking whiskey at the apartment with others, said all he could remember was going out on the balcony of the apartment for a cigarette and being awoken by friends.
“The victim had blood coming out of his legs and chest, he doesn’t remember anything or how he got the injuries. He said he had been drinking a lot of whiskey,” said Mr O’Sullivan.
Paramedics and Gardaí arrived at the scene and found the victim “slumped on the ground near a stairwell bleeding from multiple locations in his upper and lower body”.
The victim was rushed by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick where he was treated for four stab wounds to the upper left thigh and right side of his chest.
Witnesses who were at the apartment on the night refused to cooperate with Gardaí, however Mr Pudans was identified on CCTV and by members the emergency services as having blood on his hands and clothes, Mr O’Sullivan told the court.
Mr Pudans initially told Gardaí the victim had stabbed himself, but later admitted he had stabbed him.
Gardaí agreed with Mr O’Sullivan that the knife used by Mr Pudans was “potentially a deadly weapon”.
Mr O’Sullivan said that a probation report on Mr Pudans, who had 14 previous convictions for minor public order and road traffic offences, had indicated that “personal jealousy” was likely a motivational factor in why he stabbed the victim, who was an entirely innocent party.
Mr O’Sullivan said Mr Pudans said he had drunk a bottle of whiskey and cider and that he was “completely wrong” in his jealousy and that the stabbing “should never have happened”.
In sentencing Mr Pudans, Judge Tom O’Donnell said that while he accepted “alcohol played a factor”, there was an “element of premeditation” in Mr Pudans’ actions and “he nonetheless armed himself with a kitchen knife and inflicted injuries”.
In suspending the final 18 months of the three-year jail sentence, the judge noted that Mr Pudans’ probation report was “very positive”, that he had worked as a chef in a number of restaurants in Limerick and “stayed out of trouble since (the incident) and continued to work”, and he had abided by strict bail conditions while awaiting his sentence.
Mr Pudans agreed in court he would “be of good behaviour and not commit any further criminal offences” during the suspended part of his sentence, or he would face the entire sentence being activated.
