A man who "swiped" at a woman with a running chainsaw and stabbed a sleeping man "virtually all over his body", has been jailed for four years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Martin Stokes (23), of St Teresa's halting site, Temple Hill Road, Blackrock, pleaded guilty to possession of the chainsaw and to causing criminal damage with it to a caravan on Dodder Road in Rathfarnham on March 12th, 2002.
Stokes, now the father of two young children, also pleaded guilty to stabbing a sleeping man in a caravan in Dún Laoghaire on November 10th, 2001.
Garda Nuala Burke told Judge Desmond Hogan that Stokes threatened to kill his then pregnant girlfriend's sister after a perceived insult to her from her family.
He had a chainsaw which he had earlier bought for gardening purposes. He became angry at the insult and took several swipes at the woman with the running chainsaw.
Garda Burke said there were several young children at the scene and the woman Stokes attacked was carrying a three-year-old child.
She warned Stokes that her child had a heart disease that made him prone to blackouts.
"Let the bastard die, you will be next," Stokes said. "I won't stop until I have one of you dead."
One of the people he specifically wanted to see dead, he said, was the woman's mother, who owned the caravan and was due back from hospital that day.
Garda Burke said he then lunged at her with the chainsaw but missed her and hit a side of the caravan itself, causing roughly €5,000 worth of damage to it.
Det Sgt Liam McGraynor said at the time of this incident there was a warrant out for Stokes's arrest, arising from an incident the previous November when he had stabbed a sleeping man in Dún Laoghaire.
Det Sgt McGraynor said Stokes, who had been drinking since he became engaged to his girlfriend the day before, entered the sleeping man's caravan in the early hours.
He was with another man and they both carried knives with which they attacked the sleeping man.
Judge Hogan suspended the two-year term for six years on account of Stokes's early plea of guilty and his subsequent co-operation with gardaí.