A man battered his neighbours after they knocked on his windows and doors looking to have a late-night drink.
Marcus Spratt appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co Donegal charged with assaulting cousins Aidan and Gary Friel.
The two men knocked on the windows and doors of Spratt’s home at Aras Ui Domhnaill in Milford at 3.30am on July 8th, 2012.
The court heard the men knew each other and that they had often visited each other late at night if they saw a light on.
However, Spratt to offense after the Friels woke himself and partner up.
He contacted the Gardai but then went next door to confront the Friels.
He pushed Gary causing him to fall back and split his head against a fireplace.
He then went into the kitchen and Aiden was opening a pizza box with a knife.
Spratt attacked him and left him with a fractured jaw and cuts.
Barrister for the accused, Mr Ivan Toner, said his client had an aversion to knives as he had been attacked before and stabbed six times in a completely unrelated incident.
He said his client wanted to apologise to the Friels for what had happened on the night and for the assaults.
Sinc the incident took place, Spratt has fled the jurisdiction and had built up a successful contracting business in England.
On January 16th he was extradited back to Ireland on a European Arrest Warrant and had been jailed in April for other outstanding offenses.
Mr Toner revealed hos Spratt himself had been attacked in Castlerea Prison and he had to have a metal plate put in his jaw.
Judge John Aylmer said he put the assaults in the mid-range and said the injuries received by the victims were serious.
He said he did not accept that there was an element of self-defense in the case.
He initially said that each assault should carry a sentence of two and a half years each before mitigation was considered.
However, he said he was reducing that to 20 months because of his apology to the victims and the fact that he appears to have been relatively well-behaved after he absconded.
Judge Aylmer then said he had to consider the totality principle as Spratt was already serving a sentence for other offenses.
He then suspended the final fourteen months of each sentence for two years because he considered Spratt had rehabilitated himself meaning Spratt will serve an extra six months in jail.