Three years’ jail for slashing ex-girlfriends throat

Date Published: 17-Jul-2009

A 55 year old man has been sentenced to three years in prison for slashing his former girlfriend’s throat with a rusty penknife while maintaining all along that it was accidental and had occurred while he had been using the knife to cut tobacco.

John Burke, Rusheenamanagh, Carna, pleaded guilty at Galway Circuit Criminal Court in March to assaulting the woman at Francis Street, on August 26, 2006, causing her harm. He had been remanded in custody until this week for sentencing and for psychiatric assessment.

Garda Marcus Flynn told the court in March that the woman suffered a severe, deep, gaping 15cm wound to her neck and when he went to speak to her at the hospital shortly after the attack he could see that at least half of the four to five-inch rusty blade had penetrated her neck causing a deep gash which doctors had glued together.

He explained the cut was not clean as the blade used had been rusty and it had caused an uneven gash as it was dragged across the woman’s throat.

The court heard that if…