GARDAÍ ARE investigating two knife attacks in which one woman had two fingers cut off during a robbery at her home, and another woman was slashed in the face as she walked her five-year-old son to school.
A man was being questioned last night about the attack on the woman slashed in front of her son.
That incident occurred at 8.30am yesterday after the woman and child had left their home and were walking down St Anne’s Road, Drumcondra, north Dublin, on their way to the boy’s school.
The attacker approached the woman and slashed her with a knife from under her ear down to her throat as her child looked on. The attacker then fled the scene.
The victim was taken by ambulance to the Mater Hospital where her injuries are described as “not life-threatening”.
The woman, who is in her 30s, was interviewed by gardaí and identified her attacker, who she had known for some time.
Gardaí at Mountjoy Garda station arrested the 39-year-old suspect. He was taken to the station for questioning and was being held there last night under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. He can be detained for up to 24 hours without charge. The injured woman’s young son was being cared for by relatives last night.
In the second knife attack, a woman in her 30s from eastern Europe had two of her fingers cut off by a caller to her home on Wednesday afternoon.
The victim, who works as a full-time artist, was alone in her apartment at Prospect Hill, Finglas, at 2.30pm when she went to answer to a caller at her door.
When she answered a masked man armed with a knife pushed his way into the apartment.
The woman struggled with the man and suffered slashes across her hand which severed two of her fingers. She was also slashed in the upper body.
The intruder took a bank card owned by the woman and a number of other belongings. Gardaí believe a small quantity of cash was taken and the attack was most likely an opportunistic robbery.
The woman was unable to alert any residents because all the other apartments were empty. However, she managed to make her way outside to a nearby hotel, where staff called an ambulance.
She was taken to the Mater hospital.
Her fingers were retrieved from the apartment by members of the emergency services and she underwent surgery yesterday to have them reattached.