A French student who was stabbed and left for dead in the stairwell of her apartment block told yesterday how she had no concept of "tomorrow" since the attack.
Aleksejus Belousovas (29) from Lithuania received a 15-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday for the attempted murder of Barbara Riouall (24) from Marseilles, France.
He received a 10-year sentence for assault causing serious harm and a five-year sentence for attempted robbery, all to run concurrently.
On May 10th, 2005, Belousovas attacked the marketing student as she was going into her apartment in Bertram Court, near Christchurch in Dublin 8. He was a heroin addict and wanted to rob her because he had no money to buy drugs. She had arrived in Ireland four months earlier to study at the Dublin Business School.
When she showed him that she had only €3, he stabbed her several times, inflicting wounds on her throat, neck and shoulders. He twisted her head before throwing her in the stairwell of the apartment block.
Yesterday, Ms Riouall turned down the chance of a face-to-face meeting with Belousovas in what would have been the first case of restorative justice at the Central Criminal Court.
A detective stood between her and Belousovas as she passed by him to take the stand to deliver her victim impact statement. Her attacker looked straight ahead as she told how she always wore scarves to cover the stab wounds on her throat. "The view of a knife is very difficult for me and I can't use a kitchen knife now," she said.
Her hands were damaged and she could not go sailing or horse-riding anymore. She could not breathe properly if she tried to sleep on her tummy.
As she lay in St James's Hospital, she feared that her attacker would come to kill her. After she was well enough to be transferred to Marseilles, she received 24-hour care for 18 months. "After the hospital it happened regularly that I thought I should have better been dead under the stairs," she said. "I still live day to day and it is difficult for me to have a concept of tomorrow."
Ms Riouall said she was unwilling to do new things or meet new people. She won a place in a course with the University of London but turned it down because the circumstances would have reminded her of the attack.
The attack also affected her family. "My little sister, the younger one, is also quite afraid when she's outside . . . If some people stand close to the door of our home, she can't enter. She's too scared of them."
Her other sister lives in London, but has to call home every night to alleviate her parents' concern. Ms Riouall consulted a plastic surgeon and was told she would need several operations but said she wished to finish her study first.
In halting English, Belousovas told the court that he was normally "a good man".
"I still don't believe what I did," he said, in a barely audible voice. He served with the defence forces in Lithuania and came to Ireland to improve his English. He had worked as a chef around Dublin before getting involved in construction work.
Some eight months before he attacked Ms Riouall, he got involved in drugs for "fun". Three months later, he was injecting heroin. He said he tried to get help at the Merchant's Quay centre, but there was a five-month waiting list.
On the day of his attack he said he was "very sick", suffering withdrawal symptoms. He bought €40 worth of heroin on Thomas Street but "it did not work". Then he decided to rob someone. When he approached Ms Riouall "she start screaming, I just say 'shut up'". He said he had "terrible feelings" after the attack. He drank whiskey, took 12 portions of heroin and got a rope to hang himself. His former girlfriend, who did not know about the attack, dissuaded him, telling him to think of his family in Lithuania.
