Man who mutilated artist is jailed for 16 years
A burglar who chopped off the fingers of an artist in her Dublin flat has been jailed for 16 years by a judge who called the violent attack a "type of medieval barbarity".
James Kenny (aged 35) of Eden Block, Prospect Hill, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary with a knife and machete at the complex and to causing serious harm to the woman on September 2, 2009.
The victim was at home in her flat in Finglas when the doorbell rang and her masked attacker burst in demanding jewellery and credit cards, the court heard.
He bound and gagged the woman before using his weapons 'like a butcher'.
He stabbed her in the neck, chest and abdomen and chopped off her right fingers so that she was sliding around in blood and believed her only option was to play dead.
Today at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court Judge Tony Hunt said the woman's permanent injuries will impact on her work as an artist and act as a physical reminder of the horrors of this particular afternoon.
He sentenced Kenny, who has a 1998 conviction for stabbing a woman 10 times, to jail for 16 years.
