Mother jailed for stabbing man who tried to help her

A HOMELESS woman who gave birth in custody has been jailed for four years for slashing the stomach of a man who came to help her in the street.

Donna Dineen, 23, inflicted a 25cm stab wound on a stranger who said he heard her arguing with a man and thought she needed help. Victim Saurjan Syergaz, 27, told gardaí that after he walked over to help, both the man and woman turned on him and started to kick and punch him.

Mr Syergaz, originally from Mongolia, but living in Ireland for 13 years, said he fell to the ground and the man walked away, but the woman came back, kicked him and took his wallet from his pocket, containing about €20 or €30 in cash.

Dineen, who has 17 previous convictions, claimed on arrest that she had acted in self-defence after the injured party pulled a knife on her. ‘If he was there to help, I wouldn’t have done that to him,’ she told gardaí.

She later pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to Mr Syergaz at St Benedict’s Gardens, Dublin, on May 8, 2017. Dineen, of Cedar House hostel, Dublin, further admitted producing a knife and robbing the man’s wallet.

A medical report revealed Mr Syergaz had suffered a 25cm wound from his left abdomen to his left flank which bled heavily, a nasal fracture and bruising around his eyes.

Garda Conor Mackey told Tony McGillicuddy BL, prosecuting, that the injured man left a trail of blood from his ‘horrific slash wound’.

A man has also been charged in relation to the offences, but he cannot be named as his case is currently before the courts.

Dineen gave birth to her first child, a son, in March of this year at the Dóchas Centre in Mountjoy Prison.

At a sentence hearing last July, Carol Doherty BL, defending, said Dineen was doing very well in custody. ‘Motherhood is not easy, but motherhood in custody is an added difficulty,’ counsel said.

Judge Melanie Greally sentenced Dineen to concurrent terms of six years for robbery and five years for assault, with two years suspended .

She said there was ‘no doubt’ that Dineen had an ‘extremely unstable youth and early life’, noting that she had been a victim of violence and sexual abuse, and had a considerable drug and alcohol dependency.