Man jailed for stabbing wife in throat

A drug dealer who stabbed his wife in the throat during a “three-day bender” has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Martin Roe (aged 49) was also found with over €7,000 worth of drugs after gardaí responded to the assault.

When gardaí came to the house they found the door barricaded and saw him lying on a bed surrounded by kitchen knives.

Judge Martin Nolan rejected a plea not to jail Roe and allow him to return to his previous job of working on oil rigs around the world. The judge said the drugs may deserve a non-custodial sentence but he could not overlook such a serious assault.

He sentenced him to three years in prison but suspended all but 15 months in light of Roe’s early guilty plea and good work record.

Roe of The Boot Road, Clondalkin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to Lillian Roe at Kylemore Drive on July 10, 2010 and to possession of cocaine and cannabis for sale or supply on the same date.

Garda Shane Kelly told prosecuting counsel, Ms Cathleen Noctor BL, that Roe arrived home from a party, drunk and on cocaine. His wife was in the bathroom caring for their daughter who was ill.

He wanted to use the bathroom but was told to leave by his wife before she returned to looking after the child. He left and returned with a kitchen knife in each hand.

He pinned his wife in the corner before head-butting her and holding a blade to her throat. “I’m going to cut your f****** throat”, he told her before stabbing her in the neck.

She was bleeding heavily and drove straight to a garda station but was taken from there by ambulance to hospital. She required three stitches to the wound on her neck.

Gardaí called to the house but found the door barricaded with chairs. They went around the back and, through a window, saw Roe asleep on a bed surrounded by five knives. They broke down a door and confronted Roe, who initially brandished a blade but dropped it when gardaí identified themselves.

Gardaí found a bag of cocaine in his pocket and more cocaine and cannabis in an upstairs bedroom along with a weighing scales. The drugs were worth a total of €7,351.

Roe said in interview he had the knives because there had been threats against him and he was paranoid from taking cocaine. He claimed he only wanted to frighten his wife and “just lost it” when he held the knife to her.

Gda Kelly said he had been on “a three-day bender” at the time. He said his wife now has a barring order against him and he is living with family friends.

Defence counsel, Anne Rowland BL, said her client was suicidal at the time because his wife had said she was leaving him.

Counsel said he suffers from lung infections and depression which he had attempted to self-medicate with cocaine.