A father of four has been jailed for three and half years after he left a woman needing life saving surgery when he cut an artery in her arm with a blade.
John McMahon (40) and Christina Joyce were queing at a methadone clinic in Dublin when she heard someone say "There's one of the Joyces". She turned and got hit in the face before someone shouted "you f***ing b***h".
Ms Joyce held her arms up to protect herself before McMahon slashed her arms and hands with a blade.
McMahon of Cushlawn Drive, Tallaght, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Ms Joyce causing her harm and possession of a sharply pointed blade at Trinity Court Clinic, Spring Garden Lane on December 1st, 2012. His 23 previous convictions were mostly for public order, drug and road traffic offences.
Judge Martin Nolan described it as vicious attack and said Ms Joyce needed an emergency procedure to save her life. He said she has been left with "serious disfiguring scars" which have had a huge psychological impact on her life.
He noted that “reading between the lines, it was some dispute about money” and said McMahon was lucky he was not charged with a more serious offence.
He backdated the sentence to when McMahon was first remanded in custody in December 2012.
Detective Garda Niall O’Reilly told Vincent Heneghan BL, prosecuting, that Ms Joyce lost a lot of blood and was rushed to hospital by ambulance as it was considered “a life threatening situation”.
She underwent emergency surgery when doctors discovered that an artery in her arm had been severed. Ms Joyce has been left with visible scarring to her face, hand and arm. She has no use or feeling of both her ring finger and baby finger on her right hand.
A victim impact report before the court stated that the assault has destroyed her life. She is reminded of it every day when she sees her face in the mirror and people are always asking her what happened to her. Ms Joyce cannot afford plastic surgery. She is on anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medication and has made attempts on her own life. She fears she will never get full feeling back to her arm.
Michael O’Higgins SC, defending said it was “not a random motiveless attack” but told Judge Nolan that it arose out of “a dispute about money”. He accepted that this did not justify the attack nor could it be “deemed a provocation” but said he could “not go any further” than give this as an explanation.
Mr O’Higgins asked the court to accept that McMahon’s plea of guilty was “a substantial value to the State” as offences that occur in methadone clinics “are notoriously difficult to prosecute because witnesses for whatever reason” tend not to appear for hearings. He said it was a very serious offence and his client wished to offer “an unreserved apology”.
Det Gda O’Reilly said gardaí searched the area and viewed CCTV footage of the attack in its immediate aftermath. A number of blades were recovered from outside the clinic.
The following day McMahon was spotted walking on Pearse Street, wearing the same clothes as Ms Joyce’s attacker. Officers saw him throw something in a bin and a Stanley type blade was later discovered in that bin.
He was arrested and interviewed but only admitted to being in the clinic at the same time as Ms Joyce and accepted it was him on the CCTV footage. He later pleaded guilty to the offence when it came before the courts.