A man has revealed how he died twice on the operating table after being stabbed 17 times in a frenzied knife attack.
Christian Shortt told how he was stabbed multiple times in the head, neck, back, chest and hands by a man he had been out socialising with.
He was giving evidence against Kenneth Broe who appeared before a special sitting of Letterkenny Circuit Court.
The Dublin businessman, who is a part-owner in a gym, is charged with assault causing serious harm and assault causing harm to Mr Shortt in Letterkenny on October 9th, 2008 but has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
The court heard how both men had been out drinking in local bars before calling to a friend’s apartment on Letterkenny’s Main Street.
Mr Shortt, now aged 36, claimed that himself and Broe and the apartment owner Damien O’Connor began having a few drinks.
Shortt claimed that Broe had some lines of cocaine but, although he himself did take cocaine at the time, he did not take it on the night in question.
An argument started between Broe, now aged 44 and Shortt and the pair went toe-to-toe but Broe backed down.
A few seconds later, Shortt, a son of publican Frank Shortt who was awarded more than €4million after being wrongly accused of selling drugs at his premises in 1995, revealed how he was allegedly attacked with a knife by Kenneth Broe.
“I just thought he had backed down as we were friends. I just remember getting a knife into the chest and being rammed up against the wall. It all happened so fast. I got stabbed seventeen times in literally a few seconds.
“He was using all his power to take me out, he was sticking it into me,” said Mr Shortt.
He lost his breathing saying his mouth was full of blood.
He added “I was just thinking ‘Jesus, what’s happening but he just kept coming at me.’ When I went down my breathing system was taken out and I could barely breath and my mouth was full of blood. I couldn’t hold my balance and more and when I went down I just got more blows to the face and head.”
He then claimed that Broe, of Alderwood Green in Tallaght, Dublin said “You’re not such a tough guy now, you’re a f***ing pussy.”
The emergency personnel arrived at the scene a short time later and Mr Shortt was taken to Letterkenny General Hospital and then taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin where he spent two weeks in intensive care.
He revealed how he was told he died twice on the operating.
The court heard that a Garda investigation identified Mr Broe as a suspect but he had left Letterkenny in a taxi headed for Dublin but was arrested in Co Monaghan.
The case before Judge Brian O’Callaghan continues tomorrow.
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