A father of six who nearly killed a 15 year-old boy by stabbing him in the abdomen and leaving him collapsed on the street with his intestines hanging out has been jailed for three years.
Michael Treacy (49), a trained nurse and medical technician, of Ratoath Estate, Cabra, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to causing Seán Allen serious harm at Mobhi Road on February 9th, 2001.
Mr Allen, now 20, told Judge Katherine Delahunt that he had to carry his own intestines down the road and that as he screamed for help Treacy drove away.
He had been stabbed with a 30mm "gurkha" knife that Treacy obtained in Nepal when he brought a group of disadvantaged children there on a climbing expedition in 1998.
Mr Allen became aware of a fracas and recognised some of the people involved, including Treacy's son.
Insp Thomas McCarrick said that as he came upon the group, Treacy stabbed him "out of the blue with no words having been said".
Medical reports revealed Mr Allen almost died on the operating table; he spent two weeks in hospital recovering.
Inspt McCarrick said Treacy was "self serving in all accounts until he could see no way out of it", having also told the boys in his vehicle to give an account of the incident that excluded him.
Judge Delahunt said that save for the mitigating circumstances in this case, such as Treacy's previous good character, the court would have considered a five-year sentence.