A 50-YEAR-OLD man who launched a “vicious” knife attack on a woman he was in a relationship with 15 years previously has been jailed for 14 years.
Denis Leahy of Queen Street, Dublin 7 was charged with attempting to murder Rose Kenny at School Street Flats, Dublin 8 on 23 September, 2014.
Leahy pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Rose Kenny after the case had opened to the jury at the Central Criminal Court on 22 June.
He had previously pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Kenny at the same address on the same date.
Rose Kenny was attacked on the stairwell of her apartment complex on her way to work in a local creche. Her injuries included three stab wounds to her neck and three stab wounds to her chest. One of the stab wounds to her neck went through the front of her larynx.
Today Mr Justice Paul Butler sentenced Leahy to 14 years imprisonment and backdated it to 23 September, 2014.
He said the victim impact statement given by Kenny last week was “so moving” that he had to adjourn sentencing until today to consider all the matters carefully.
Mr Justice Butler also said that Kenny was “obviously very popular” with the presence of all her peers in court.
He said the aggravating factors included the ferociousness of the attack and the injuries sustained to Kenny.
“It was only thanks to the highly skillful medical intervention that Kenny survived,” he said.
Planned attack
The judge said the attack by Leahy was premeditated and had been planned “for at least a day.”
He also said there was a “lack of remorse” shown by the accused and the court considered the offence to be at the higher end of the scale.
The judge said the mitigating factors included the fact that the accused had “no relevant previous convictions”.
“From an early stage he admitted the facts and at a late stage he entered a plea to count one.”
Upon handing down sentence Mr Justice Butler said:
The lowest sentence I can impose on this case is 14 years to date from 23 September 2014. I considered a suspension but there is no basis on which to do so.
The brother of Rose Kenny spoke on behalf of his sister outside court today regarding the sentence handed down.
Paul Kenny said:
On behalf of Rose we would like to thank our friends, family and the investigating team. Although we think no sentence would have been harsh enough, we are very pleased with the outcome and we now hope that Rose can get on with the rest of her life. It’s a fairly stiff sentence but it’s a terrible crime and we are glad the judge saw through everything.
Victim impact statement
Last week Kenny delivered an emotional victim impact statement to the court.
Afterwards speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice the 51-year-old woman said the attack had “changed her completely.”
“I’ve had to leave the area I grew up and worked in,” she said.
I tried to go back to work but I just wasn’t able for it. It has just completely changed my life and I don’t trust the world the way I used to.
“I don’t look anyone in the eye and say hello anymore, I look at their hands to see if they are carrying a weapon. I just don’t think it’s a nice world,” she said.
The court previously heard that on the morning of the attack Kenny was going to work in a local family resource centre where she worked in a crèche. She left her flat at 7.50am and came down the stairs to make the forty second journey to her place of employment when she saw a man reading a newspaper at the end of the stairs.
“I remember saying good morning and he just jumped up and attacked me but I never saw his face after that,” she said.
Kenny never lost consciousness throughout the attack until she got to the hospital.
My eyes were closed through the whole attack but I opened my eyes then and I never let them close again because if I closed my eyes then I would have died and I did not want to die.
Kenny said she sustained “multiple injuries” and “lacerations” to her neck, abdomen, back, shoulder and arm.
Her “horrendous injuries” included three stab wounds to her neck and three stab wounds to her chest.
“I never recognised him at all”
The mother of one did not recognise Leahy throughout the assault even though she had shared many years with him as her partner.
“I never recognised him at all. When I was told it was him it was like being attacked all over again,” she said.
Kenny said she has since had to live with the “guilt” of bringing this man into her life and every day she asks herself how could she “have been such a bad judge of character.”
She had been in a relationship with the accused for approximately five years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They had parted on reasonable terms but she had had no contact with Leahy for six years prior to the offence on 23 September 2014.
I was dating him, I was his partner. I feel how could I judge somebody so badly. I feel I put my family’s lives at risk because of him.
Kenny said she tries her best “not to think” about Leahy now.
“I want to get back to where I was. I was a very strong person and I will get back to being that person. I have great support and have brilliant friends and family,” she said.
The whole of the Liberties was behind me and I had prayers from everybody. I had prayers from America where I have great friends. It was all the prayers and support that helped me get through this.
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