Teenager given eight-year sentence for stabbing

Teenager given eight-year sentence for stabbing


Victim (16) was ‘isolated and defenceless’

A CASTLEBAR teenager was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment after he was found guilty by a jury of the stabbing of a fellow teen in Westport.
Shane Naughton (now 19) with an address of 7 Tara Court, Castlebar, had pleaded not guilty to the charge of causing serious harm to Henry Newham (now 17) on March 16, 2013. However, the eleven-person jury took just one hour and 20 minutes to find him guilty at last week’s sitting of Castlebar Circuit Court.

Wrong place, wrong time
The trial, which was held over five days, heard evidence that Mr Newham received the stab wound following a dispute between two groups of youths from Castlebar and Westport, which had played out over the course of a day and evening. Mr Newham had been with neither group as events had unfolded earlier on the evening when he was stabbed, and the court was told he was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ when he was attacked on the Railway Walk in Westport at approximately 10.30pm.
Mr Naughton had denied he had inflicted the near-fatal wound, claiming Eamon Barrett, a friend who was with him, had done it. Mr Naughton was also found guilty of the production of a knife on the night, and had earlier pleaded guilty to violent disorder.
Judge Melanie Greally told Mr Naughton that he had involved himself in something that was none of his business and armed himself with a knife. She added that Mr Newham was ‘isolated and defenceless’ when he was stabbed ‘for no reason’, and that he was ‘fortunate to be alive’.
Judge Greally said that Mr Newham had been a ‘happy-go-lucky lad’ before the attack, but that his life has been changed irreversibly as a consequence.
The court heard that Mr Naughton had previous convictions for knife-related crime and was extradited from Northern Ireland last July to face trial.
In sentencing Mr Naughton, Judge Greally said the sentence would reflect the seriousness of the offence, but she added that she hoped Mr Naughton would put his time in prison to good use and turn his life around.
Sentencing him to eight years imprisonment for stabbing Mr Newham, she said she would suspend the final two years of his sentence for two years’ probation on account of his young age.
Mr Naughton also received a four-year sentence for each of the two additional charges, but they are to run concurrently with the eight-year sentence. He was also told to stay out of Westport for two years post release.

Dispute
The trial heard that a dispute between teenagers from Westport and Castlebar which occurred earlier in the day had escalated on the night of March 16. Eamon Barrett from Castlebar was going out with a Westport girl, and gang of up to 20 youths came to her home in Westport. A rock was thrown through a front window and the family car was damaged.
Following this, three Castlebar men – Shane Naughton, Eamon Barrett and Bernie ‘Big B’ Sweeney – armed themselves with kitchen knives and other weapons and pursued the group.
They came upon Henry Newham, who was on his own and unaware of any danger as he walked towards the trio on Railway Walk between the bridges at High Street and the Leenane Road in Westport. During the trial, he described feeling as though he had been punched ‘really hard’ in his side. He did not realise he was stabbed until he noticed blood coming from his side.
Mr Newham, who was 16 years old at the time, managed to stumble towards the old railway bridge at the top of High Street, where he was assisted by two people who tried to stop the bleeding, along with the emergency services.
Mr Newham was rushed to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar, where he underwent emergency surgery. His spleen was removed due to the stab wound, and he will have to take daily doses of penicillin for the rest of his life to avoid the risk of infection.
Mr Newham suffered significant blood loss as a result of the attack. Almost two litres of fresh blood were removed from his abdomen cavity during surgery, and he received two units of blood post surgery.
The knife wound also caused a 1cm tear to both his colon and his diaphragm, and Mr Newham remained in hospital until March 26.
In his report, Mr Kevin Barry, a general surgeon at Mayo General Hospital, said Mr Newham suffered life-threatening injuries, consistent with those caused by a long knife or blade pushed with ‘significant force’ to cause a ‘deep penetration’. The knives used in the attack were cleaned and hidden behind a stove in a house in St Mary’s Villas, Westport, where Mr Naughton was heard saying that he had stabbed someone. Mr Naughton was arrested in the house a few hours later, and his clothes were forensically examined. Blood found on the Nike logo of his tracksuit trousers was found to contain Mr Newham’s DNA.

Truth and lies
In his closing arguments to the jury, Mr Garnet Orange, SC for Mr Naughton, said he had harsh words to say about a number of people in the case, including ‘the young men and women of Westport’. He said a number of the witnesses had lied and that evidence had to be ‘dragged out of them’.
Mr Orange described the garda investigation as ‘a fiasco’, claiming that Eamon Barrett had not been investigated as the perpetrator of the stabbing, and that ‘important leads’ had not been followed up. He claimed that Eamon Barrett went back to Castlebar immediately after the stabbing, burned his clothes and asked his girlfriend to lie about what he was wearing on the night.
In contrast, he said his client, Mr Naughton, had stayed in Westport, got drunk and was in the same clothes he was wearing on the night when he was arrested by gardaí a few hours later. Mr Orange claimed the prosecution and gardaí had ‘bought into the line’ that one person ‘had done it’ and that the person in question was Mr Naughton.
In his submission, Mr Pat Reynolds, BL for the prosecution, said that there was no evidence Mr Newham was doing anything wrong on the night. He said Mr Newham, who had been no threat to anyone, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had been ‘pounced on needlessly’.
Mr Reynolds pointed out that there was evidence that Mr Naughton had told people he had stabbed someone on the night, and he added that Mr Newham’s blood was found on Mr Naughton’s tracksuit. Commenting on Mr Naughton’s version of events, he quoted French artist Georges Braque: “Truth exists; only lies are invented.”

Elsewhere on mayonews.ie
Wrong place, wrong time
Naughton suffered a ‘shocking’ and ‘fragmented’ upbringing