Man who attacked childhood acquaintance given four years

A man who launched "a brutal, savage and life changing attack" on a childhood acquaintance has been sentenced to four years in prison by Judge Frank O'Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Niall Byrne (aged 20) of Sundale Park, Tallaght, assaulted Mr Shane Quinn with an ornamental sword after breaking into the home he shared with this girlfriend.

Byrne pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Quinn (aged 27), causing him harm and to burglary at his home on January 1, 2008. He had nine previous convictions for drug offences.

Garda Padraig Mullarkey told Ms Una Ni Raifeartaigh BL, prosecuting, that he was called to the home of Mr Quinn (aged 27) and his girlfriend Rosaleen Lynch that morning, to find the victim with a slash wound to his head and cuts on his arm.

Ms Lynch was bleeding from her nose and lip and their front door had been badly damaged as if it had been kicked in.

They were both taken to hospital where Ms Lynch received treatment for a broken nose. It was accepted that both have since made "a substantial recovery from their injuries".

Judge O'Donnell commented at the sentence hearing last March that this was "a horrendous attack on two innocent people in the middle of the night" and described it as an ultimate nightmare. He said he was not sure if the "penalty available" to the court was adequate.

He said Byrne's later apology would have been of "little consolation" to Mr Quinn who has been "living in fear" since this attack and a victim impact report indicated that the incident that night had changed his life.

Judge O'Donnell suspended the last year of the sentence on condition that Byrne keep the peace and be of good behaviour for four years upon his release from prison.