A YOUNG MAN whose soccer career was ended after he was stabbed in the leg has had his sentence for assault further adjourned to November 11th.
Yohan Verhoven (21), of Abbey View, Monkstown, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty in January to assaulting another man with a baseball bat and occasioning him actual bodily harm on September 8th, 1996.
Verhoven's victim was the man who allegedly stabbed him in the leg and damaged a nerve, Judge Pat McCartan had been told at a previous hearing in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge McCartan had adjourned sentence, initially for three months, telling Verhoven he was giving him a chance to behave and to have his case dealt with noncustodially.
"I am only starting in this job. I had hoped my first case would be one in which I would not have to send someone to prison. I am asking you for a favour", Judge McCartan told Yerhoven.
Garda Colm O Gilleain told Mr John O'Hanlon, prosecuting, that the motive for the assault was "in relation to money owed for certain matters".
Verhoven and two other men drove by in a car while the assault victim was sitting with friends. The man ran off, but was cornered in Vicker's Field at Wyattville by Verhoven, who beat him with a baseball bat. He received three stitches and suffered bruising.
Garda O Gilleain agreed with Ms Isobel Kennedy, defending, that there had been "bad blood" between Verhoven and the victim over a period of about two years.
The defendant's father, Mr Samuel Verhoven, said that his son's promising playing career had "gone down the drain" after the stabbing. He had been playing well with the Shamrock Rovers reserve team up to then.