A 26 year old man sent his girlfriend back to their flat for knives after he and his friends were involved in an incident with French students, Cork Circuit Criminal Court has been told.
Kieran Quilligan, who was living in a flat in Leitrim Street, Cork, at the time of the April 1995 assault, pleaded guilty yesterday to attacking Mr David Bonnet with a knife and wounding him, and to stealing money and other items from Mr Frederick Ballon.
Garda Colm O'Sullivan said there were a number of incidents on the night of April 18th. A friend of Mr Bonnet had money and items stolen from him outside a night club in Oliver Plunkett Street.
The French students, who came to Ireland to look for summer work, went to South Main Street, where they came across the defendant and his four friends in a chip shop. Quilligan sent his girlfriend back to their flat for knives. These were thrown into the river after the assault.
The French students were on their way back to a hostel when the Cork gang caught up with them. Mr Bonnet (22) stood his ground and Quilligan raised the knife over his head and swung it down, striking the Frenchman on the head over his left ear. He was taken to hospital with a deep laceration and received 14 stitches.
Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending said Quilligan had stayed on the straight and narrow until his grandfather died in 1991.
Judge Patrick Moran, passing sentence of four years' penal servitude, said it was an appalling assault and the defendant was lucky he was not facing a murder charge.