Printer pays €20,000 compensation for stabbing neighbour

A former printer at The Irish Press who stabbed his next door neighbour "in 30 seconds of madness" after being caught letting the air out of her car’s tyre has been ordered to pay her €20,000 in compensation.

Michael O'Keefe (aged 60), of Castlepark, Tallaght pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Ms Ellen Farrelly causing her harm and to damaging the wheel of a motor vehicle on April 26, 2005 at Swans Nest Road, Kilbarrack.

Judge Katherine Delahunt said it was "in every sense a tragic case, both for the victim and for you who, at the age of 60, has had your life fall apart". She noted he had lost contact his wife and children since the incident.

Judge Delahunt imposed a three year sentence which she suspended for five years and ordered that he pay his victim €20,000 which he had brought to court as compensation from the sale of the family home.

She further ordered that he stay away from Swans Nest Road and not approach Ms Farrelly for the period of the suspension.

Sergeant Eileen Costello told Mr Sean Gillane BL, prosecuting, that Ms Farrelly had been socialising in a pub on the night and when she returned home she saw an individual underneath her car.

She asked the person what he were doing and she said O’Keefe, her next door neighbour, got up and ran towards her shouting incoherently. He hit out at her several times landing blows and she ran screaming for help out onto the road where she noticed she had blood on her chest.

Sgt Costello said an ambulance arrived and took Ms Farrelly to Beaumont hospital where it was discovered she had stab wounds to her left breast and arm and scratch marks on her back.

Sgt Costello said she responded to a 999 call and arrived in Swans Nest Road where she was met by O'Keefe who invited her into his house. She said he seemed "agitated and incoherent" and complained of "banging, banging, banging" due to work being carried out by the Farrellys on their home.

He told gardaí that he had simply intended to let air out of the tyre of the front left wheel of the car with a thin blade but when Ms Farrelly arrived and called for her husband he had "30 seconds of madness" and stabbed her. He said he then went into his house and rang the gardaí.

Sgt Costello said he was remorseful and said he would swap places with Ms Farrelly if he could.

She agreed with Mr Luigi Rea BL, defending, that there had been a dispute between the two families about refuse and O'Keefe believed that the car was being used to transport refuse.

She also agreed that since the incident O'Keefe had made several "gruesome" suicide attempts by various methods including hanging, overdosing on pills and using corrosive liquids.

Ms Farrelly told Mr Gillane that she was in recovery from breast cancer treatment at the time and had been out of work for two months after the incident. She said she was now "afraid to go outside the door" considering "a neighbour could do this for no reason".

Mr Rea submitted that his client had moved out of his family home and was now residing with his sister.

He said O'Keefe had consumed a bottle of whiskey on the night leading him to be too drunk to be interviewed by gardaí that night and will "regret the incident until the day he dies".

Mr Rea said that his actions were "unprecedented in its nature and have not been repeated since". He says his client accepts that no amount of noise or any dispute justifies this "once off fall from grace".