18/04/2008

Polish Man Jailed For Stabbing Journalist

A Polish national has been jailed for a savage knife attack on a young journalist.

Leszek Jarosz, 22, living at Weavers Square in Dublin, stabbed Ms O'Dwyer in the throat during a botched robbery in the early hours of May 19 last year, less than three weeks after he arrived in Ireland.

Since the attack there have been revelations that Jarosz had been convicted of violent crimes in Poland before his arrival in Ireland.

In a case set to fuel debate over the ease with which violent convicted criminals can move around the EU, Leszek Jarosz was yesterday jailed for seven years for the brutal stabbing of young journalist Mairead O'Dwyer.

The Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard it was a miracle Ms O'Dwyer, 28, survived as the kitchen knife used in the attack entered one side of her neck and came out the other.

The court heard that Jarosz set upon Ms O’Dwyer as she returned to her house in Rialto, Dublin from a night out with colleagues. As she screamed he sunk the knife into her neck and left her for dead.

She managed to raised the alarm by banging on neighbours' doors and opening her front door to set off the house alarm before collapsing into a pool of her own blood.

Inspector Walter Kilcullen said that after the stabbing Jarosz went home to change out of his bloodstained clothes before robbing two other men, Spaniard Jose Gonzalez and Croatian Luka Martinac, at knifepoint later that night.

Judge McCartan imposed seven years for the attack on Ms O'Dwyer and three year sentences for the two counts of robbery, to run concurrently.

(DW/JM)

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