Judge gives accused ‘a chance’ following knife attack in Limerick

A YOUNG man who ‘cut and slashed’ two other men while off his head on drink and drugs has avoided an immediate prison sentence.

Imposing a suspended sentence, Judge Tom O’Donnell told Adam Coleman what he did was “very wrong” but that he was prepared to give him a chance.​

Mr Coleman, 24, of Mahon House, Upper William Street, Limerick had pleaded guilty to charges of assault relating to an incident in the Cornmarket area of the city centre in the early hours of June 30, 2017.

Garda Andrew O’Connor said Mr Coleman initially encountered the two victims at a takeaway and that he “asked for a fight” outside.

However, John O’Sullivan BL, prosecuting, said he came off the worse and that he was knocked to the ground. He left the area but returned again a short time later.

Garda O’Connor said Mr Coleman was armed with a knife when he returned and that he ran at a group of people, including the two men he had encountered earlier.

“He attempted to cut and slash people at random,” he stated.

One of the men he cut sustained relatively minor injuries while the second  sustained serious injuries to his hand which required plastic surgery and ongoing medical treatment.

The defendant was restrained at the scene and made admissions when  questioned by gardai a number of days later.

Barrister Eimear Carey said her client had consumed alcohol and drugs on the night that he was “in self-destruct mode”.

“He felt as if he was in a movie,” she said adding Mr Coleman is extremely remorseful, is now in a stable relationship and has not come to the attention of gardai since.

“If he could take it back and change what happened he would,” added the barrister.

Imposing sentence, the judge said the use of a knife was a significant concern and that what happened was “extremely serious and frightening”.

He said the positive contents of a probation report and the delay in the matter coming before the court were factors which he had to consider.

He imposed a two-and-a-half year sentence which he suspended in its entirety.