Two “feral youths” who stabbed a teenager 14 times in a vicious and premeditated attack have received combined jail sentences of 13-and-a-half years.
During a sentencing hearing, the judge told both defendants that they were “a millimetre away from doing a life sentence” and “should be down on their knees giving thanks” they are not.
Sentencing Sean Johnston (22) and his now 20-year-old co-accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Tony Hunt called the case “very disturbing” and described the very “calculated degree of violence” on the then 16-year-old victim as “shocking”.
Mr Justice Hunt said that both defendants “fitted the bill” for the term “feral youth”, which he said was occasionally used by the media. He said he found the case disturbing because it was perpetrated by “people so young”.
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The Central Criminal Court had heard evidence that Johnston had bragged about stabbing the victim, had described himself as a “gangster” and at one point started “rapping down the phone” to his ex-girlfriend having admitted to the attack.
The court has also heard evidence that Johnston threatened his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, saying: “I puncture people’s lungs and leave them in hospital on life support.”
Last July, in a statement to the court, the victim’s mother called for support and guidance for the two defendants who were teenagers when they stabbed her son.
The mother, who could not be named to protect her son’s identity as he was a minor at the time of the assault, said she felt “heartbreak” not just for her son, but also for the two men who inflicted his injuries.
Mr Justice Hunt described the mother’s statement at the time as “charitable and moving”. He said he would echo the comments of a surgeon who said that the victim in this case was lucky to be alive. The two defendants, he said, could “count themselves lucky they are not facing a mandatory life sentence.”
Johnston (22) of Russell Place, Russell Square, Tallaght, Dublin 24 had pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm to the then 16-year-old victim at Tymon Lane in Tallaght on January 2nd, 2021. He had also pleaded guilty to six threats to kill another teenager, unrelated to the victim of the stabbing, via text message and once verbally at the Red Cow Luas stop in Dublin 22 on April 14th, 2021.
Johnston’s co-accused pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious harm to the teenager and to making a threat to kill or cause serious injury to another teenager, intending him to believe the threat would be carried out, at the Red Cow Luas Stop on April 14th, 2021. Both were initially charged with attempted murder but the State accepted their pleas and dropped the more serious charges.
Mr Justice Hunt set a headline sentence of 16 years for Johnston and 13 years for the second youth.
Referring to Johnston’s co-accused, the judge said the defendant was just under 18 years at the time so he would make a “modest allowance” for his youth and “trim” the sentence back to 11 years.
The judge said the main benefit both men had were their guilty pleas and he would therefore apply one quarter of a discount to both sentences, resulting in a sentence of 12 years for Johnston.
In relation to the second youth, the judge imposed a sentence of eight years imprisonment with the final two-and-a-half years suspended resulting in a sentence of five-and-a-half years. His sentence was backdated to January 28th, 2022.