Teenager receives eight year sentence for stabbing

Teenager receives eight year sentence for stabbing

Jury find 19 year-old guilty after Westport youth was left with serious injuries after incident on local town Greenway

A CASTLEBAR teenager has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment after he was found guilty by a jury of the stabbing of a Westport youth in 2013.
Shane Naughton (19) with an address of 7 Tara Court, Castlebar had pleaded not guilty to the charge of causing serious harm to Henry Newham on March 16, 2013, but the eleven person jury took just one hour and twenty minutes to find him guilty at today’s (Wednesday) sitting of Castlebar Circuit Court.
Mr Naughton was also found guilty of the charge of production of a knife and he had earlier pleaded guilty to violent disorder which also occurred on the evening of which Mr Newham was stabbed.
The stabbing to Mr Newham took place at approximately 10.30pm on the Railway Walk, Westport when the victim was only 16 years old.
He received a life threatening injury and underwent emergency surgery in Mayo General Hospital and as a result of the attack, his spleen was removed and he has to take daily doses of penicillin to avoid infection.

Significant blood loss
Mr Newham, now 18, suffered significant blood loss as a result of the attack, with 1.8 litres of fresh blood removed from his abdomen cavity during surgery and received two units of blood post surgery.
In his victim impact statement which was read to the court, he described how he was a keen sports person before the attack, but now did not have the ‘stamina, energy or confidence to play’ and felt he was ‘not that person anymore and probably never will be’.
In sentencing Mr Naughton, Judge Melanie Greally told the defendant that he had got himself involved in something which was none of his concern or business and armed himself with a knife. She added that Mr Newham was isolated and defenceless when he was stabbed for no reason and was fortunate to be alive.
Judge Greally sentenced Mr Naughton to eight years imprisonment for stabbing Mr Newham but said she would suspend the final two years of his sentence for two years on account of his age and a belief that it was not appropriate to give up on him entirely.
He received a four year sentence for each of the two additional charges but they were to run concurrent with the sentence. He was also told to stay out of Westport for two years post release.

MORE? See next week’s Mayo News for full coverage of the sentencing.