Carpenter has sentence suspended in cleaver-attack case
A 24-year-old carpenter has been given a suspended sentence for his part in an altercation during which he lost part of his ear after being hit in the neck with a meat cleaver by his co-accused.
Glen Byrne, of Ballyowen Court, Lucan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to violent disorder at Main Street, Rathcoole on June 10, 2006.
Judge Frank O’Donnell heard that the incident occurred after Byrne had returned to the scene of an earlier clash with his co-accused, Edward Balfe (aged 25), of Autostart, Main Street, Rathcoole, who has not yet come before the courts.
Judge O’Donnell told him: "All too often these disputes blow up, a knife is used and then there is a body on the ground."
He imposed a two year suspended sentence and ordered him to pay €300 compensation.
Garda Shane Kelly told Mr Sean Gillane BL, prosecuting, that there was a "history" between Glen Byrne and the Balfe family.
He said Byrne was dropping off a friend in Rathcoole when Richard Balfe stepped in front of his car. After a verbal exchange between Balfe and Byrne, Edward Balfe arrived and began to punch Byrne through the car window and kick his car.
Byrne told the two men he would return in a few minutes for a "straightner" and drove to Clondalkin where he picked up two friends. He drove back to the scene and his friends armed themselves with uprights from a staircase which were in Byrne’s car from his work as a carpenter.
An altercation took place between Byrne’s group and members of the Balfe family during which Edward Balfe took out a meat clever and waved it around shouting "come on I will chop you."
Byrne was hit in the neck with the meat cleaver and hit back at Balfe with a staircase upright before being taken to hospital by his friends. He received a 15 cm cut to his neck and part of the bottom of his ear was missing.
Mr Remy Farrell BL, defending Byrne, said the others involved in the incident had been dealt with in the District Court but since the alleged attack on Byrne by his co-accused, Edward Balfe, had been so serious this linked case had been sent forward to the Circuit Court.
Mr Farrell said most of the evidence against his client had come from his own full and frank statements to gardai and said he done
