Two Chinese men convicted of stabbing garda

Two Chinese men have been convicted of stabbing one garda and acquitted of causing serious harm to another who had helped to foil their robbery attempt on fellow-nationals almost three years ago.

Xiang Cheng (25) and Qian Cheng aka Jian Gong Ten (28), both of no fixed abode, were found guilty by a jury on day seven of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of assaulting Garda James Hendrick causing him harm at Main Street, Raheny on July 13, 2005.

The jury found them not guilty on a second charge of intentionally or recklessly causing Garda David Comer serious harm on the same occasion.

They had denied both these charges and have pleaded guilty previously to aggravated burglary and the false imprisonment of Ms Xiao Mei Ma, aka Doris; Ms Ju Liu Yong, aka Angela; and Mr Yu Ting,0 aka Austin, on the same occasion.

Judge Tony Hunt remanded them in custody for sentence later.

The jury reached its verdicts following five hours and forty eight minutes deliberating and after spending one night in a hotel. Judge Hunt thanked the six men and six women for their service and exempted them from jury service for five years.

The jury heard that the gardaí were repeatedly stabbed after foiling a gang who tied up and held their fellow-nationals captive thought they were going to be killed by a balaclava-masked man wielding a knife.

Gda Hendrick said in evidence that it "felt like an eternity" while he said Gda Comer was "fighting for his life" while being stabbed after he fell into a bath in the house.

Gda Comer was stabbed a number of times in what was called "a frenzied style attack".

Gda Hendrick said he thought he was also "going to die" when cornered after getting his colleague out of the bath when trying to force the frenzied knifeman off him with one hand and call for help with his phone in the other hand.

"When you know the colleague you were laughing with in the car earlier is now in the bath fighting for his life it feels like a long time," Gda Hendrick said.

He said Gda Comer was struggling for breath before falling to his knees on the landing. Gda Hendrick said he then saw the man with the knife who had attacked Gda Comer come out of the bathroom and he saw another man coming up the stairs. "I thought I was going to die," he said.

He said the man coming out of the bathroom then ran past them down the stairs and he "presumed" they both ran out the front door. He said he felt "certain" that Gda Comer would die because of his injuries.