A judge has imposed a 22-month detention order on a teenager for a “horrific, chilling and completely unprovoked” knife attack carried out on a 25-year-old man in the west Clare town of Kilrush.
At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford imposed the sentence on the 17-year-old for the “frenzied knife” attack on Jeffrey Ryan at Francis Street, Kilrush, on June 13th last.
The accused was 16 at the time of the attack and pleaded guilty to assault causing harm of Ryan.
In her victim impact statement, Ava Moloney, who jumped to the defence of Ryan, said the teenager told Ryan “You’re dead Jeffrey, you’re dead” before inflicting several knife wounds to Ryan’s head and body.
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Ryan required 80 stitches to his wounds, including one 15cm-long slash wound to his head and ear that cut through to his skull.
In sentencing, the judge praised Moloney’s bravery for protecting Ryan.
He said: “The single biggest reason that it wasn’t worse was the intervention of Ava Moloney where she put herself in harm’s way.”
The judge said that Moloney slowed down the attack “and if she wasn’t there it may have been dealt with in a different court”.
Comerford described the attack as “horrific” and said it had a profound impact on Ryan.
Counsel for the State Sarah Jane Comerford told the judge the accused – who cannot be named as he is a child – is allowed to remain at Oberstown detention facility until he turns 18½ before being transferred to an adult prison.
The judge said he was imposing the 22-month prison term backdated to when the accused went into detention at Oberstown last June, as it would not result in the accused being transferred to the adult prison population next January. The judge said that with 25 per cent remission the accused will be released before he turns 18½ years.
He said reports before the court had made very clear there would be very extreme adverse consequences for the accused if he was to be transferred from Oberstown into an adult prison population.
He said: “I do have to put this weight on helping a child who took the worst possible path to get back on to the right path.”
The judge noted that the accused had no previous convictions and reports lodged with court stated that there was a good chance that the accused would never engage in any offending again. He said the accused had shown genuine remorse and it had not been done for tactical reasons.
In court the teenager blessed himself after the judge passed sentence. In a letter read out to court last month, the teenager said he wanted the judge to know how much he regretted his actions.
The boy’s mother (38) pleaded guilty to assaulting Ava Moloney on June 13th at Francis Street, Kilrush. .
The judge imposed a suspended 15-month prison term on the mother. He said the woman had come into possession of the knife after the assault by her son rather than before it.
Both Moloney and Ryan are originally from Croom in Co Limerick.
