A MAN SLASHED the face of an acquaintance after they got chatting on the Luas, partially severing his ear lobe in a “gruesome” attack, a Dublin court has heard.

Sandro Teixeira slashed the face of Ismail Mustafa, leaving a 10 centimetre wound that required plastic surgery, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told today.

Teixeira (30) with an address in North Circular Road, Phibsborough, Dublin, was initially charged with assault causing serious harm, but pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial last March to the lesser charge of assault causing harm. 

The attack took place at Parkgate Street on 22 January 2018. 

Teixeira has six previous convictions from the UK. He was jailed for four years in 2009 for grievous bodily harm, Detective Garda Ciaran Callaly told the court. 

The court heard that the victim Mustafa ran into Teixeira in the street and the pair got chatting as they were travelling on the same Luas.

When they got off the Luas, Teixeira asked Mustafa to walk with him towards the Aisling Hotel. He then produced a knife and assaulted Mustafa without warning, slashing his face and severing part of his ear lobe. 

Mustafa spent three days in hospital where he underwent plastic surgery. In a victim impact statement handed into court, he said he still suffers from pain and has a scar.

He struggles with sleeplessness and has been permanently disfigured as a result of the attack, the court heard. He is afraid to visit his family in Sudan as he doesn’t want them to see his face. 

Gardaí identified Teixeria from Luas CCTV footage and he was arrested.

Defence barrister James Dwyer SC said his client was born in Portugal but moved to London at the age of two.

Teixeira “committed this gruesome offence on a man who was entirely innocent,” Dwyer told the court. He handed up a letter of apology from his client and said Teixeira was willing to pay a “substantial sum” of money to Mustafa as a token of his remorse.

Judge Karen O’Connor adjourned the matter to Friday for sentence and to ascertain if Mustafa would be willing to accept the money. 

Additional

The court heard that Teixeira never knew his father and his mother was an air steward so he was essentially raised by his grandmother.

When his grandmother died, Teixeira was a teenager who was living in London with very little structure to his life and he got involved in criminality, Dwyer said.

After serving a prison sentence in the UK, he was deported to Portugal, despite having no connections there and no Portuguese. He returned to the UK, was convicted and imprisoned again and once more deported to Portugal. 

He then moved to Ireland. He has no previous convictions in this jurisdiction.

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