Kilkenny attacks: Man jailed for three years after DPP appeals suspended sentence
A father-of-four who received a wholly suspended sentence after stabbing one man and violently attacking six others in two "extreme" unprovoked attacks has been jailed for three years following a successful appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In November 2010, John Donovan pleaded guilty at Kilkenny Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing serious harm to Darragh Nolan and assaulting three other individuals on High Street Kilkenny on January 17, 2004.
He also pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm to Kenneth Fisher and assaulting Mr Fisher and two of his friends at a nightclub on Parliament St in Kilkenny two months later on March 18, 2004.
At a sentence hearing in April last year, Judge Oliver Buttimer imposed a three-year suspended sentence on Donovan, after taking in to account his plea of guilty, his remorse and his reintegration in to the local community, which she said would be a "shame" to interrupt by sending him to prison.
Mr Justice Liam McKechnie, presiding at the Court of Criminal Appeal, said today it was clear that John Donovan had a propensity toward violence and had committed very serious offences involving seven people in all.
