Man gets 9 years for sword attack

A man who attacked an army veteran with a samurai sword, leaving him partially paralysed and able to speak just four words, has been jailed for nine years.

Liam McCarthy, aged 29 of Church St, Cappawhite, Co Tipperary, admitted causing serious harm to army veteran Martin Butler, aged 50, during a row on the street in the town, as well as violent disorder and producing an offensive weapon.

Evidence was heard at Clonmel Circuit Court earlier in the year but sentencing was postponed until yesterday after it emerged McCarthy was under the terms of a suspended prison sentence when he committed the offences in Cappawhite on Mar 30, 2012.