A young man has told how he was left so traumatised after being stabbed in the face in Letterkenny that he had to give up his job working in a kitchen after developing a fear of knives.
James Gorman was sliced by John McGinley on April 10, 2022 in the doorway of a fast-food outlet.
At Letterkenny Circuit Court this week, McGinley, an 18-year-old from Glenwood Park in Letterkenny, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison by Judge John Aylmer.
Garda Gary Farren told Ms Patricia McLaughlin BL, state prosecutor, how he was in Letterkenny University Hospital investigating a separate matter when he observed Mr Gorman with a gash on his face.
Mr Gorman, who was 19 at the time, told Gardai how he was outside Subway on Main Street, Letterkenny, when he was approached by McGinley, who produced a knife and sliced his face.
Mr Gorman said he could feel the cut and was afraid McGinley was going to cut him again. After the incident, McGinley sent Mr Gorman messages on Snapchat.
A medical report explained that Mr Gorman suffered multiple lacerations to his neck and face. He was given a tetanus injection before being discharged from hospital.
CCTV footage showed McGinley walking towards Subway and making contact with Mr Gorman’s face with an object.
McGinley was arrested on April 11, 2022 and admitted pulling a knife out and ‘running it down the side’ of Mr Gorman’s face. After the incident, McGinley told Gardai that he ‘left town and went to bed’.
McGinley said he had a ‘beef’ with Mr Gorman in relation to ‘something to do with one of James Gorman’s friends’.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Gorman said the attack left him ‘terrified to leave the house’. He said he was now scared of bumping into McGinley or his associates.
He said he has constant nightmares and has flashbacks of getting sliced.
“It is absolutely no way to live,” Mr Gorman said.
The victim was working in a kitchen at the time of the incident, but has since suffered such a severe fear of knives that he had to quit the job.
He said: “Seeing knives everywhere was too much. I panic at the sight of knives. I became afraid that people wouldn’t understand and I became very depressed and anxious. It is not fair to put people through this, where I can’t enjoy a simple night out and am always looking over the shoulder.”
Mr Gorman said his scars are a ‘constant reminder’ of an incident that has left him traumatised.
Judge Aylmer asked to see Mr Gorman’s visible scars.
Barrister for McGinley, Mr Peter Nolan BL, said his client was 17 at the time of the attack and the knife used had been brought out by another party.
Mr Nolan said his client suffered from drug and alcohol misuse since he was 12 years old and has ‘criminal associates’.
Mr Nolan said there are concerns over a number of outstanding offences, but his client has no previous convictions.
McGinley, his barrister said, has a ‘limited insight into victim impact’.
“He has a poor attitude to the authorities,” Mr Nolan said. There was a lack of regard and remorse to the victim.”
Mr Nolan said McGinley has since apologised and has a ‘reasonable’ work record, most recently being employed in a car valeting company.
Mr Nolan asked the court to be as lenient as possible as McGinley is a ‘young man with his full life ahead of him’.
Judge Aylmer said the incident is on the upper end of such offending as it involved the premeditated use of a knife that was ‘very purposefully run down the face in a manner designed to cause significant scarring injury’.
Judge Aylmer said the starting point for sentencing, before consideration of mitigation, was four and a half years in prison.
“He did express remorse at the outset, but unfortunately it appears that he has limited victim empathy,” Judge Aylmer said. “Unfortunately, he had to hear a graphic victim impact statement before having insight.”
Judge Aylmer said McGinley has no previous convictions and was co-operative to a significant extent, followed by the tendering of an early guilty plea.
Judge Aylmer reduced the sentence to one of three and a half years imprisonment, but said there is ‘clearly a great need for rehabilitation’.
Having regard to McGinley’s age and the absence of previous convictions, Judge Aylmer reduced the final 12 months of the sentence on the accused entering into a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for a period of 24 months after his release from prison.
During that 24 months, he will be under the supervision of the Probation Service and was ordered to abstain completely from unprescribed drugs and alcohol.
McGinley became tearful as Judge Aylmer passed judgement and he was comforted by his father before being led away by prison officers.