Man gets 10 years for 2001 stabbing

The owner of a children's clothing store in Swords whose vicious stabbing left his victim's intestines protruding from his body has been jailed for 10 years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Darren Duff (aged 36) of Doon Court, Poppintree Ballymun was convicted on July 29 by a jury of causing serious harm to Mr Stephen McCann by stabbing him, on July 28, 2001 at Hillcrest Way Estate, Lucan.

Judge Frank O'Donnell said he was not surprised to hear that Mr McCann had declined to make a victim-impact statement in the case.

"I watched him and the other witnesses decline to give evidence in the trial having initially given very damning statements to gardaí.

"These young people all gave the same message with fear written all over their face and embedded in their composure," Judge O'Donnell said before he added "and I have no doubt as to the source of their fear".

He said that the fact that Duff had gone into a house to pick up a knife showed "malice and forethought with the intent to cause serious harm".

"You caused an incalculable amount of harm so much so that seven years after the event it is still with Mr McCann," Judge O'Donnell said.

He told Duff that his 23 previous convictions, which included a nine- and a five-year sentence for two armed robberies showed "a consistent disregard for any structures placed on him by society" and added that the prison terms imposed on him had not seemed "to deter him in the slightest".

Judge O'Donnell sentenced Duff to 10 years in prison after saying that, "without the criminal justice system you would have got away scot-free".

The victim and 10 other civilian witnesses refused to testify at the 11-day trial before the statements they made to gardaí in 2001 were read into evidence by prosecuting counsel Ms Melanie Greally BL, following legal argument in the absence of the jury.

They all agreed with Ms Greally that their statements were had been made voluntarily.

"I don't want to give evidence in this trial. I just want to move on with my life and forget about everything," Mr McCann said after taking the oath in the witness box on day-one of the trial.

A ritual procession of other civilians followed him to the witness box with each one of them, after taking the oath, using similar forms of words when refusing to give evidence: "With due respect to the court, I do not wish to give evidence"; "I just don't wish to give evidence today"; "It was a long time ago".

Mr MacEntee was told by several of them that nobody had asked them to decline to give evidence. One of them replied "no" when Mr MacEntee asked her: "Did you agree your choice of words with anyone?"

Garda Geraldine Ennis told prosecuting counsel, Ms Melanie Greally BL, that Mr McCann needed surgery to repair bowel and colon perforations caused by the stabbing. The operation was successful and he had since made a full recovery.

The jury heard that Mr McCann had been talking to friends outside a house in Hillcrest Way when he intervened in a dispute between Duff and a woman that was going on a little further up the street.

There was a short-lived struggle which ended when Mr McCann's friend pulled him away from Duff who then armed himself with a knife from the house, ran after Mr McCann and stabbed him in the stomach.

Garda Ennis said that it was clear to everyone that Mr McCann had been badly injured because his intestines could be seen protruding from his body.

Duff moved off but continued to make threats at everyone before he drove off. He presented himself at the local garda station in September that year but refused to stand in an identification parade.

Garda Ennis agreed with defence counsel, Mr Patrick MacEntee SC (with Mr Laurence Masterson BL), that Duff had spent some of his childhood in Clonmel Industrial School in Tipperary but accepted that he had not been in "substantial trouble" with the gardai since his release from prison in 1996.

She said she was not aware that Duff had opened a children's clothing store in Swords.

Mr MacEntee told Judge O'Donnell that he could not defend the use of a knife on another human being but asked the court to accept that it was "an isolated incident".

Duff's father drowned in the River Shannon on July 21, 1995 near Limerick following the armed robbery of Ir£10,000 from the AIB Bank at Castletroy.

Tony "Boss" Duff drowned after he was carried downstream in a strong current when he dived into the Shannon at Clondarra following a five-mile chase by gardaí who arrived at the bank while a four-member gang was making off.