Chinese men convicted of stabbing garda after foiled robbery attempt

TWO Chinese men have been convicted of stabbing one garda and acquitted of causing serious harm to another who had helped to foil their robbery attempt on fellow nationals about three years ago.

Xiang Cheng, aged 25, and Qian Cheng, aged 28, both of no fixed abode, were found guilty by a jury on day seven of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of assaulting Garda James Hendrick causing him harm at Main Street, Raheny, Co Dublin, on July 13, 2005. The jury found them not guilty on a second charge of intentionally or recklessly causing Garda David Comer serious harm on the same occasion. They had denied both these charges and have pleaded guilty previously to aggravated burglary and the false imprisonment of Ms Xiao Mei Ma, Ms Ju Liu Yong and Mr Yu Ting on the same occasion.

Judge Tony Hunt remanded them in custody for sentence later. The jury reached its verdicts following five hours and 48 minutes of deliberation and after spending one night in a hotel.

The jury heard the gardaí were repeatedly stabbed after foiling a gang who tied up and held their fellow nationals captive and how they thought they were going to be killed by a masked man wielding a knife.

Gda Hendrick said in evidence that it “felt like an eternity” while he said Gda Comer was “fighting for his life” while being stabbed after he fell into a bath in the house. Gda Comer shouted “Jesus Christ” about three times as he was stabbed a number of times in what was called “a frenzied-style attack”.

Gda Hendrick said he thought he was also “going to die” when cornered after getting his colleague out of the bath when trying to force the knifeman off him with one hand and call for help with his phone in the other hand.

“When you know the colleague you were laughing with in the car earlier is now in the bath fighting for his life it feels like a long time,” said Gda Hendrick.

He said Gda Comer was struggling for breath and said “I am f**ked” before falling to his knees on the landing. Gda Hendrick said he then saw the man with the knife who had attacked Gda Comer come out of the bathroom and he saw another man coming up the stairs. “I thought I was going to die,” he said.

He said the man ran past them and he “presumed” they both ran out the front door. He said he felt “certain” that Gda Comer would die because of his injuries.

Gda Hendrick said he brought his colleague down the stairs and laid him down on the ground outside where Gda Comer kept saying to him: “Jimmy, I am f**ked.”