Man jailed for chainsaw attack and stabbing sleeping man

A man who "swiped" at a woman with a running chainsaw and stabbed a sleeping man "virtually all over his body", has been jailed for four years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Martin Stokes, aged 23, of St Teresa's Halting Site, Temple Hill Road, Blackrock, pleaded guilty to possession of the chainsaw and to causing criminal damage with it to a caravan on Dodder Road in Rathfarnham on March 12, 2002.

Stokes, now the father of two young children, also pleaded guilty to stabbing a sleeping man in a caravan in Dun Laoghaire on November 10, 2001.

Garda Nuala Burke told Judge Desmond Hogan that Stokes threatened to kill his then pregnant girlfriend's sister after a perceived insult to her from her family.

He had a chainsaw which he had earlier bought for gardening purposes. He became angry at the insult and took several swipes at the woman with the running chainsaw.

Garda Burke said there were several young children at the scene and that the woman Stokes attacked was carrying a three-year-old baby.

She warned Stokes that her baby had a heart-disease that made him prone to blackouts.

"Let the bastard die, you will be next," Stokes said in reply and added: "I won't stop until I have one of you dead."

One of the people he specifically wanted to see dead, he said, was the woman's mother, who owned the caravan and was due back from hospital that day.

Garda Burke said he then lunged at her with the chainsaw but missed her and hit a side of the caravan itself, causing roughly €5,000 worth of damage to it.

Detective Sergeant Liam McGraynor said at the time of this incident, there was a warrant out for Stokes' arrest, arising out of an incident in the November before when he had stabbed a sleeping man in Dun Laoghaire.

Det Sgt McGraynor said Stokes, who had been drinking since he became engaged to his girlfriend the previous day, entered the sleeping man's caravan in the early hours of the morning.

He was with another man and they both carried knives with which they attacked the sleeping man all over his body.

He was left with 15 stab wounds, one of them penetrating his chest causing his lung to collapse.

Det Sgt McGraynor said the injured man, who managed to summon help by crawling to other caravans in the area, recognised Stokes during the attack and relayed the information to gardaí.

When he was arrested for the offences Stokes said the man had insulted his mother the previous day. He gave no other reason for the attack.

Stokes addressed Judge Hogan personally in court, saying: "I would like to apologise for what happened. I would like to especially apologise to the family of my girlfriend."

Judge Hogan noted that Stokes had "a propensity for violence" and deserved a custodial sentence for his offences.

He imposed a four year sentence for the stabbing and a two year concurrent term for the chainsaw incident.

He suspended the two year term for six years on account of Stokes' early plea of guilty and his subsequent cooperation with gardaí.