Cork man tells assault trial 'I was spurting out blood and I could not stop it'

'It was like an electric fence around me — that kind of pain.'

Wed, 06 May, 2026 - 17:52

Liam Heylin

A Dunmanway man who was saturated in his own blood after being stabbed said his brother was vicious, angry and full of venom on the evening and that their father was ‘jawing’ like someone at a football match saying: “Do what you came down to do.”

The injured man, Jerry Brennan junior denied the suggestion made by the defendant William Brennan that he (Jerry) had taunted him that day with the words: “It’s virgin boy, you can’t get the ride.” Defence senior counsel, Jane Hyland, put this suggestion to Jerry Brennan who replied in the witness box: “It sounds silly, it is not something I would say.”

'We ran for our lives': Cork man tells assault trial of blood 'firing' from his brother’s arm

The trial continued on Wednesday of 32-year-old William Brennan, of Longbridge, Ballyhalwick, Dunmanway, County Cork, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where he denies charges of assault causing serious harm to John Brennan and Jeremiah Brennan (junior), also known as Jerry, at the family home, both charges brought under Section 4 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.

William Brennan also denies a charge of producing a knife in the course of a dispute, all charges related to the date of August 17, 2024.

Jerry said the yard where the disputed incident occurred after 7pm that evening had been signed over to himself and his two brothers 10 years previously. He said that two days earlier CCTV cameras at the yard had been removed from the property.

Recalling the day, he testified: “I heard an angle-grinder at the gate and I went out. Willie was there cutting the lock off the gate with the angle-grinder. The locks were being cut off faster than I could put a key in the post to him.

“He was going on about all the things he got. He said he got a lion’s cage. And he said, ‘I am going to take this place’ and he drew the knife on me. It was inside in his pocket. He went for me with the knife. I did my level best to keep him back. He got me anyway.

“It was like an electric fence around me — that kind of pain. In under my arm he got me. My father was there. He came in after Willie. He was just jawing away, saying along the lines of, ‘Do what you came down to do’. It was like at a football match, like fellas cheering on their team, encouraging the whole thing.

I was spurting out blood and I could not stop it. It was like a hydraulic hose bursting out blood.

!I was soaked. I was saturated in my own blood and I couldn’t stop it. Johnny said, ‘You are after getting done’. I kind of knew that myself, like, you know. Johnny picked up a stick of timber. ‘T’was rotten, to be honest with you. Johnny hit him with it. It broke off him. It meant nothing.

“Willie went for Johnny then. He stabbed him in the chest with the knife… I stuck my two fingers into my wound to stop the bleeding.”

He said his father would not give John his car or his phone to get help.

Cross-examined by Ms Hyland, Jerry said he knew nothing about William’s excavator being burnt out in Leap that morning. And he knew nothing about William’s dog being hurt. He denied “using his brother as a punch-bag” when they were growing up, or pushing him off the roof of a shed.

He denied having anger management issues or attending a course for this. He also denied driving past his father showing a cigarette lighter as he passed, saying in the witness box: “No, this is madness.”

The trial of William Brennan continues before Judge Helen Boyle and a jury of eight men and four women at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.