TWO MEN have been convicted of stabbing one garda and acquitted of causing serious harm to another who had helped to foil their robbery attempt almost three years ago.
Xiang Cheng (25) and Qian Cheng (28), also known as Jian Gong Ten, both of no fixed abode, were found guilty by a jury on day seven of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of assaulting Garda James Hendrick at Main Street, Raheny, Dublin, on July 13th, 2005. The jury found them not guilty of intentionally or recklessly causing Garda David Comer serious harm.
They had denied both these charges but had pleaded guilty previously to aggravated burglary and the false imprisonment of Xiao Mei Ma, also known as Doris; Ju Liu Yong, also known as Angela; and Yu Ting, also known as Austin, on the same occasion.
Judge Tony Hunt remanded them in custody for sentence later.
The verdicts were reached after nearly six hours and after the jury spent one night in a hotel.
The jury heard that the gardaí were repeatedly stabbed after foiling a gang who tied up and held their fellow Chinese nationals captive in a house in Raheny. The gardaí thought they were going to be killed by a balaclava-masked man wielding a knife.