Sword assault man has sentence further suspended on appeal

A father of three who took part in an assault in which a carpenter's hand was cut off with a samurai sword has succeeded in having a quarter of his eight-year sentence suspended on appeal.

Anthony Dowling (aged 36) was armed with a claw hammer and his co-accused Charles Russell (aged 30) armed with the sword when they attacked a man who had allegedly made a crude remark to Dowling’s mother-in-law in a crowded Dublin pub.