Man jailed after slashing women’s arm

A father of four has been jailed for three and half years after he left a woman needing life-saving surgery when he cut an artery in her arm with a blade.

40-year-old John McMahon of Cushlawn Drive in Tallaght in Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Christina Joyce outside a methadone clinic in the city centre on December 1, 2012.

Judge Martin Nolan described it as vicious attack and said Ms Joyce needed an emergency procedure to save her life.

She was also left with serious scars on her face, hand and arm and she cannot afford plastic surgery.

She also has no feeling in two of her fingers.

The sentence was backdated to when McMahon was first remanded in custody in December 2012.