A Circuit Court judge sitting in Sligo says the number of assaults involving knives is a souce of serious concern.
Judge Keenan Johnson was speaking during sentencing of a man charged with assaulting a man and woman in a pub in Sligo while he had a hunting knife.
The attack on the couple occurred in October 2016 during a get-together in The Crozon Inn in Sligo after a funeral.
The court heard Patrick McMorrow, of 47 Caltragh Crescent in Sligo, assaulted Patrice McMorrow and Michael Harte, causing them harm.
Michael Harte was stabbed a number times, sustaining a punctured lung and a laceration to his ear and liver.
The Judge said he was within minutes of losing his fight for life.
He said that in relation to Patrice McMorrow, the knife was plunged into her left breast, her lung collapsed, and she has scarring as a result of a chest drain.
Her hand was also injured.
Judge Johnson said the injuries to both were extremely serious and life-chaning.
He said the prevalence of assaults involving youths with knives was a source of concern, and he went on to speak of the number of such cases he dealt with recently in various courts.
He described the incident in The Crozon Inn as a ‘frienzied attack.’
He sentenced McMorrow to 10 years in prison, with the final two years suspended for five years for rehabilitation purposes, with a condition he remain drug and alcohol free.
