A man who tried to kill a young student by slitting her throat as he mugged her to get money for heroin was jailed today for 15 years.
After apologising to his victim in court Lithuanian national Aleksejus Belousovas was handed concurrent sentences for attempted murder, serious assault and attempted robbery.
The 29-year-old former soldier left French student Barbara Riouall fighting for her life after stabbing her three times with a foot-long kitchen knife and twisting her neck in an attempt to break it.
Ms Riouall, who was studying marketing at Dublin Business School, was "extremely lucky to have survived" the knife attack during an attempted robbery at her apartment in the Weavers, Bertram Court, Dublin 8, on May 10th, 2005. She underwent emergency surgery at St James's Hospital.
Belousovas, with a previous address on the North Circular Road in Dublin, stabbed his victim in the shoulder and cut her throat twice before stabbing her a fourth time, leaving a piece of the knife lodged in her neck. The tip of the weapon broke off after coming into contact with one of her vertebrae.
In an effort to end the attack the 24-year-old, from Marseilles, played dead and Belousovas dumped her under a stairwell outside her apartment block in Dublin's Christchurch.
Ms Riouall, who was studying marketing at Dublin Business School, was extremely lucky to have survived the knife attack during an attempted robbery at her apartment in the Weavers, Bertram Court, Dublin 8, on May 10th, 2005. She underwent emergency surgery at St James's Hospital.