Latvian sentenced for drunken knife assault

A Latvian man who pulled a knife on a Dublin taxi driver after a whiskey binge-drinking session has received a two year sentence suspended on condition he returns to Latvia.

Oskars Bertulans (aged 31) sat behind Mr Peter Pederman, held a knife to his face and ordered him to drive to Cabra but then got out and ran up the road when the taxi driver kept shouting for help.

Gardai arrested him later that night after he attacked a shop assistant with a frying pan in an attempted robbery, which was dealt with at District Court level.

Bertulans, with an address at South Richmond Street, claimed he couldn’t remember either incident because he was so drunk after sharing four bottles of whiskey with friends.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Mr Pederman, a father-of-four, outside a North Strand valet centre around 8.30pm on November 18, 2008.

He has one previous conviction for the attempted robbery on the same night.

Detective Garda Michael Quinn told Ms Anne-Marie Lawlor BL, prosecuting, that Bertulans had been drinking with friends at the valet centre to celebrate him leaving Ireland to return home with his wife in December.

The detective garda said CCTV footage at a nearby off-license showed Bertulans buying two bottles of whiskey earlier that day.

He said another man rang a taxi and greeted Mr Pederman when he arrived but Bertulans got in minutes later, grabbed the driver’s throat and held a small knife to his face.

Mr Pederman tried to remove his assailant’s hands but Bertulans pressed the knife against his cheek.

Bertulans eventually fled the scene and was arrested later that night for the attempted robbery on Barrow Street.

Det Gda Quinn told Ms Lawlor that Mr Pederman has given up working nights since the attack.

He agreed with Mr Eoin Lawlor BL, defending, that his client had returned to Ireland to face the charge.

Mr Lawlor submitted to Judge Patrick McCartan that his client had been in Ireland for around six years before the incident and had never come to adverse garda attention.

He submitted that Bertulans wished to apologise and express his “deep shame and remorse” for his behaviour on the night.

Judge McCartan imposed a two year sentence to mark the crime’s seriousness since Mr Pederman’s “capacity to earn a living at his job has been very severely limited”.

He suspended the entire sentence on condition Bertulans returns home to Latvia.