Man's arm sliced to the bone with knife while he lay asleep
The defendant pleaded guilty at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court.
A man thought he was “going to die” when his brother-in-law sliced open his arm with a Stanley knife as he slept.
Patrick McDonagh, aged 31, of Cherry Trees Lane, Hemel Hempstead in the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm.
The injured party, Christopher Lawrence, aged 31, of Luton in the United Kingdom, and his assailant were in Castlebar for a funeral when the attack occurred on June 2, 2022.
The court heard that hours before McDonagh had threatened to cut the injured party from ‘toe to throat’ outside a shop in Castlebar.
Mr Lawrence was staying in a house at Riverdale Court. He was asleep in bed when McDonagh and his wife (the victim’s sister) turned up at the property at 4.30am. McDonagh went upstairs and used a Stanley knife to cut the injured party’s arm to the bone as he slept.
Mr Lawrence awoke to find McDonagh standing over him with a knife as his arm bled profusely. McDonagh fled the house and Mr Lawrence was later found collapsed in the street after he contacted the emergency services.
The injured party required surgery and was hospitalised for a number of days. He sustained nerve damage and cut tendons He has lost feeling in one of his fingers and only has 70-80% mobility in his hand.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Lawrence stated that he believed he was going to die.
“I genuinely thought I was a dead man,” he said.
The victim said he is constantly in fear and continues to suffer from flashbacks of the incident.
McDonagh was arrested at the time but left the jurisdiction while on bail. A warrant for his arrest was issued in July 2022 and he was arrested in the UK on May 1, 2025. He has remained in custody both in Ireland and the UK since that date. McDonagh unsuccessfully contested his extradition back to Ireland with the process taking nine months.
He has five previous conviction, all of which occurred in the UK.
McDonagh’s mother-in-law Winnie Lawrence, who is the mother of the victim, appeared in court in support of her son-in-law.
She said there was a family feud which stemmed from her daughter’s refusal to agree to an arranged marriage. She said her daughter ran away with Patrick McDonagh and “it all blew up from there".
“This was an appalling criminal act,” said Judge Eoin Garavan.
He said the threats issued by McDonagh showed that this “was not some spontaneous act". The judge said Mr Lawrence sustained an “enormous, jaw-dropping wound” and lost two pints of blood.
Judge Garavan said McDonagh’s actions were cowardly and it was “not a fair fight”.
“He (Lawrence) must have woken up to what was a nightmare,” the judge remarked.
Judge Garavan imposed a four-year jail term, backdating the sentence to reflect time already spent in custody.
- Published as part of the Courts Reporting Scheme.
