A man who had his bicycle stolen during an altercation with a number of youths returned to the incident and stabbed a 14 year old boy with a pair of scissors.
Letterkenny court.
Vincent Doherty (45) appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court charged with producing an article capable of causing serious injury.
Doherty, then 42, had been drinking with a number of young men at the Gartan Field in Letterkenny on the night of January 29th, 2011 when the incident happened.
The court heard how Doherty, a former baker, had had a verbal altercation with a 14 year old boy during which Doherty made derogatory remarks about the boy’s dead father.
A row ensued during which Doherty’s bike was taken from him and he received a number of blows.
He returned to the scene a number of hours later at around 2am and produced a pair of scissors and stabbed the boy a number of times in the neck and stomach.
During this altercation Doherty was again attacked and was hit with a roadsign in the head at one stage.
He fled the scene again and was chased to his house.
Gardai were called and the boy had to be taken by ambulance to hospital.
Barrister for the accused, Damien Crawford, said all those at the scene were reluctant to give any statements to Gardai.
He said his client is very remorseful but still feels a sense of grievance that his side of the story had not ben completely told.
He revealed that Doherty had been suffering as a result of the incident and that all the windows in his home had ben smashed and he had been threatened.
Judge Matthew Deery said it was a serious incident but said it would have been difficult to get a prosecution as nobody wanted to come forward to give evidence.
He said he appreciated that references including one from Cara House spoke highly of Doherty.
He sentenced Doherty to 200 hours of community service in lieu of two years in prison.