Jail sentence for man who stabbed two friends
A 22-year-old intoxicated man stabbed a classmate in the leg with a screwdriver and ten months later stabbed a childhood friend five times with a large kitchen knife while they were playing videogames.
Ronan Timothy, 1 Greenview Heights, Newcastle, has been in custody since the second attack occurred last summer.
He pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last November to assaulting his 22-year-old friend, causing him harm at a house on Ardilaun Road, Newcastle, on July 3 last year. He also pleaded guilty to producing a large kitchen knife in the course of that assault.
Timothy further pleaded guilty to assaulting a classmate at his own home in Greenview Heights on September 14, 2017.
Sentence for both assaults was adjourned to this month for the preparation of reports.
Gardai Killian Fitzmaurice told the hearing the attack on the classmate occurred when a group of Timothy’s classmates from GTI went back to his home one evening. They had been drinking all day and while they were talking in Timothy’s room, he suddenly picked up a screwdriver and stabbed his victim in the thigh.
The victim went to A&E, but left after waiting hours there to be seen. He went to his own GP the following day. The puncture wound was cleaned and the victim was given a tetanus shot.
Garda Fitzmaurice said the victim did not wish to attend court but he had given a victim impact statement which the Garda read into evidence.
In it, the victim said he had to receive counselling after the unprovoked attack. He said he feared meeting the accused as Galway was such a small place but was relieved when he heard he had been taken into custody following the second attack.
Sergeant Paul McNulty told the hearing the second attack on July 3 last occurred while Timothy and his friend were playing Fifa on a PlayStation at a house in Ardilaun Road.
Ambulance personnel found the victim outside the house bleeding from a number of stab wounds to his left arm and upper left shoulder area and back.
He told Gardai that Timothy had fled the scene after stabbing him. The large kitchen knife used in the attack was found in the kitchen sink.
Other youths who were present in the house said a verbal altercation began between the friends while they were sitting on a couch. Timothy went to the kitchen and returned with the knife. He lunged at his friend who was still sitting on the couch, stabbing him a number of times. Another friend pulled him off and disarmed him.
Timothy was arrested at his home a short time later but could not be interviewed for four hours due to his intoxication from a cocktail of drugs and alcohol, Sgt McNulty said.
Timothy told Gardai he remembered grabbing the knife and stabbing his friend but he didn’t know why he did it.
Sgt McNulty said the victim did not want to be in court and declined to give a victim impact statement. He said the young man, who came from Westside but was now living in Dublin, was happy that Timothy had accepted full responsibility for the attack.
Defence barrister, Garry McDonald said his client had been the sole carer for his father and two brothers since the untimely death of his mother three years ago and the stress he had been under drove him to take drink and drugs.
He said the accused needed treatment for his addictions while in custody
Judge Rory McCabe said Timothy had a problem with self-control and anger management and drink and drugs seemed to be a trigger.
He sentenced him to two years in prison for the first assault and imposed a concurrent two-and-a-half-year sentence for the second assault. He imposed a further concurrent two-year sentence for using the knife and suspended the final 12 months of each sentence for two years on condition Timothy come under the supervision of the probation service on his release. The sentences were backdated to when Timothy first went into custody last July.