A 19-year-old teenager has been jailed for two years for repeatedly attacking a teenager with a knife and slashing him across the face with the blade, resulting in the victim being permanently scarred.
Chindo Emeaugbor from Summerhill in Mallow, Co Cork he pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to the 17-year-old at Applegreen, Spa Square, Mallow on November 3rd 2019.
Det Garda Aidan Long told the court that he was on duty on the night in question when the teenager came into Mallow Garda Station with his mother and sister to report the attack.
He was bleeding heavily from a laceration from just below his left ear down to his chin and his clothing had been cut and his shoe sliced in the attack and he was highly distraught and traumatized, said Det Garda Long.
Gardaí arranged for the youth to get medical treatment and he was taken to hospital where doctors glued the facial wound and the youth later identified the culprit as a black male.
Det Garda Long said that gardaí harvested CCTV footage from the area and identified Emeaugbor and two others on security footage with Emeaugbor stabbing the injured party in the back with a Stanley knife.
He said the top of the Stanley knife blade broke off when Emeaugbor stabbed the teenager in the back so Emeaugbor stopped and extended the blade out further and he proceeded to slash his teenage victim across the face.
Clothing
He also continued attacking the youth, slashing his clothing and even slicing open his shoes in what was a frenzied and sustained assault which was fully captured on CCTV, said Det Garda Long.
He said that the attack happened after Emeaugbor had demanded that the youth hand over his mobile phone to him and when the youth refused, Emeaugbor produced the Stanley knife and began attacking him.
Det Garda Long said that after gardaí identified Emeaugbor from the CCTV footage, they went to arrest him at his home at Summerhill in Mallow only to discover from his mother that he had gone to the UK.
Gardaí established that he had booked a flight to Newcastle within two hours of the assault on the teenager but they learned he was returning to Ireland on January 3rd 2020 and arrested him at Dublin Airport.
He was conveyed to Mallow Garda Station where he was interviewed at length and made full admissions but claimed the attack resulted from the fact that the youth owed him money after he had paid off a debt on the youth’s behalf.
Det Garda Long said that Embeaugbor had a total of nine previous convictions including three for possession of drugs and one for public order as well as some road traffic matters and confirmed he had never been in custody before.
Permanent scar
He said the injured party had been left with a permanent scar as a result of the attack and was endeavouring to conceal it by growing a beard but he remained deeply shaken by the frenzied attack.
Defence barrister, Donal O’Sullivan BL pleaded for leniency, saying that his client was abusing cannabis and cocaine at the time of the incident and said he expressed remorse for his actions at the very end of his interview with gardaí.
Mr O’Sullivan suggested that he suffered from a lack of maturity. “He’s a native of Mallow, his family live there and it’s his home – he’s a young fellow with a serious lack of cop-on and in dire need of some maturity,” he said.
Judge Sean O’ Donnabhain said Embeaugbor had committed “a very nasty assault” and the fact that he had used a knife and used it repeatedly to attack his victim were aggravating factors in the case.
“This was a vicious frenetic attack,” said Judge O Donnabhain, adding that he was still at a loss to understand what prompted Embeaugbor to attack his victim so violently but he acknowledged his plea was a mitigating factor.
He said in all the circumstances he believed the appropriate sentence was one of two and half years but he suspended the final six months and backdated the two year term to January 5th when Embeaugbor first went into custody.
