THE OWNER of a tattoo business who threatened former employees with a hammer and a flick knife – after they set up tattoo shops in opposition to his – and who told one man he had hired a Limerick gang to break his hands and burn him out, has been sentenced to 23 months in prison at Galway District Court.
Judge Mary Fahy said she was imposing the lengthy sentence on Luke McMahon (38), William Street, Galway, because of the seriousness of the charges which involved the use of a hammer and a flick knife, and the continuity of the offences which were committed over a three-day period in the city last June. McMahon, who pleaded guilty to all charges, went to Victor Tattoos at Lower Abbeygate Street, Galway, at 3pm on June 23rd last where he banged on the door with a hammer and threatened terrified staff who rang gardaí.
The next day McMahon went to Custom Tattoo, also on Abbeygate Street at 4.30pm and threatened two men there with a flick knife.
The men fled the premises and were chased down the street by McMahon who kept waving the knife at them. Then, on June 25th, McMahon returned to Victor Tattoos and again threatened one of the employees with a knife. McMahon warned the man that unless he withdrew a statement he had made to gardaí about the previous day’s incident, he would get a Limerick gang to break his hands and burn the premises down.
Judge Fahy said the legislature was now taking a very serious stance on knife crime.
