Sandyford man jailed for attacking victim with samurai sword

By Sonya McLean

A man who attacked his victim with a samurai sword over a €50 drug debt has been jailed for four years.

The court heard that Conor Stewart (29) owed the victim’s brother €50 due to a drug debt when he and another man set upon him.

Stewart, of Kilcross Court, Sandyford, Dublin 18, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm and production of a samurai sword at Kilcross Grove, also in Sandyford, on June 18, 2020. His previous convictions including criminal damage and burglary.

Detective Garda Aoife Lewis told Oisin Clarke BL, prosecuting, that the victim saw a van pull up before a man got out and ran after him carrying an adjustable wrench.

The man said: “You think you and your brother can get away with causing this trouble” before he was struck on the back of the head.

Stewart then got out of the van carrying a samurai sword shouting: “This is because of your brother” before he attacked the man leaving him with a cut to the left hand side of his head.

The victim protested that it had nothing to with him and the driver of the van shouted at the men to leave him alone.

The man was later treated in hospital for a cut to the back of his head and a larger wound to the side of his head which required stitches. He has since made a full recovery and he did not prepare a victim impact statement.

Det Gda Lewis agreed with Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, that it was his client who owed the drug.

She accepted that Stewart and the victim and his brother have since reconciled and that “any bad odour that was around at the time has since dissipated”.

Det Gda Lewis accepted that it was a valuable plea as the case may have been difficult to prosecute.

Mr O’Higgins said Stewart apologises for his actions adding there had been “bad blood” between him and the victim’s brother over this drug debt.

He said he has been on remand in prison and only recently got a bed in his cell due to over-crowding there.

Counsel said his client’s “twenties have been effectively written off” due to the time he spent in prison and he understands that he needs to break the cycle of offending.

Judge Martin Nolan said both men were angry at the victim’s brother and Stewart armed himself with “a vicious weapon”.

“Can he change? Who knows? If he does not, he will keep going back to prison,” Judge Nolan said before he sentenced the man to four years in prison, having accepted that his plea of guilty in the case was “valuable”.