A Tallaght man who almost killed a 15-year-old boy over a drug debt has been jailed for five years.
Aaron Byrne of Kilclare Crescent was sentenced today after admitting to stabbing the teenager in April 2014.
Almost two litres of blood were removed from the boy’s chest during a life saving operation after Aaron Byrne stabbed him once under his rib cage.
He owed €250 for cannabis and Byrne arranged to meet him in Naas when a row broke out between the two that led to him being stabbed.
The knife was never recovered but blood taken from the scene linked the 22-year-old to the crime.
Today, the court heard his victim spent five days in hospital but has healed well. However, he’s since moved schools and finds it hard to sleep. He also said he felt that people looked at him differently afterwards and he feels like a social outcast.
Judge Martin Nolan described Byrne’s actions as a “total over-reaction” that could have killed the boy if it wasn’t for the prompt medical attention he received.
He then handed down an eight year sentence but suspended the final three.
