Jail for man over knife attack on medic while out on bail
A MACHETE-WIELDING man was on High Court bail when he car-jacked a psychiatrist and his pregnant wife.
Declan Sherlock, 24, formerly of Dromard, Ennis, Co. Clare, was yesterday jailed for twoand-a-half years over the assault on Dr Narayanan Subramanian and his wife, Anju Sara Alex, four days before Christmas Day in 2017.
The couple had just arrived home at 11.20pm after a scan for their first child when Sherlock, who was high on Zanax, confronted them with a 29cm blade machete.
Dr Subramanian said Sherlock put the machete against his abdomen and threatened to stab his wife and unborn child.
He demanded the keys of the couple’s car and drove it down the motorway towards Limerick before crashing it after a highspeed chase with gardaí.
As Declan Sherlock was on bail at the time of the offence, the jail term will run consecutive to a two-year jail term imposed on Mr Sherlock earlier yesterday for a separate, feud-related assault five months earlier.
Sherlock was also sentenced to a separate year and a half in prison for his part in an attack on a taxi driver on June 9, 2017, but this will be served at the same time as his other sentences.
In his victim impact statement read out at Ennis Circuit Court previously, Dr Subramanian said: ‘This man made one of the best days of our life’ following the scan of the couple’s unborn child, ‘into one of the worst we could have ever imagined in our life’.
Dr Subramanian said Declan Sherlock’s ‘threat to stab, putting the machete on my tummy at my doorstep and threatening to stab my wife and our unborn baby would be hard to forget for us in years to come’.
During the evidence in the case, Garda Noelle Bergin agreed with barrister for Mr Sherlock, Pat Whyms BL that the threat to stab Ms Alex and her unborn baby wasn’t part of the State case and didn’t appear in the Book of Evidence.
Mr Sherlock lived in the same Dromard estate in Ennis as the couple at the time and in her victim impact statement, Ms Alex – who is a nurse – said that the threat posed by Mr Sherlock ‘to my life, my husband’s and our unborn baby is unspeakable’.
Traumatised by the event, the couple fled their home and Ms Alex said that Sherlock ‘totally ruined our Christmas celebrations and made it one of the worst Christmases of our life’.
She said: ‘It would possibly take me years to get over the psychological impact of the threat and knowing that this man is supposed to be behind bars for not complying with bail conditions when he threatened to stab us and steal our car and crash, makes it worse.’
Declan Sherlock pleaded guilty to nine separate charges from the incident, including hi-jacking the car, threatening to kill Dr Subramanian on Ennis’s Lahinch Road at the Dromard housing estate, criminal damage, possession of a weapon and dangerous driving.
Mr Sherlock was on bail at the time, having secured High Court bail after being refused bail in the district court in relation to an assault causing harm charge.
In his victim impact statement, Dr Subramanian said: ‘It baffles me to this day to find out after his criminal activity that this man had a few convictions in the past, was on bail – after being refused bail initially – and skipped bail a week earlier only to threaten to stab his innocent neighbours and steal their car to crash it, whose only fault was being his neighbour.’ He said: ‘Obviously, there is something not right with the criminal justice system and it appears that the rights of repeat offenders is more important than the safety and rights of the larger public and innocent victims like us.’
Dr Subramanian said that there needs to be more accountability in the criminal justice system in relation to repeat offenders, otherwise they will continue to offend and not much will change in the longer run.
In the separate case for attacking the taxi driver on June 9, 2017, the court heard that Declan Sherlock’s brother, Jordan. 19, formerly of Dromard, Ennis, Co. Clare, stabbed taxi man Abi Ohiku six times with a pen knife.
Judge Keys described the attack as ‘vicious and completely unwarranted’. Mr Ohiku was set up upon by four members of the Sherlock family in a dispute over a fare.
Judge Keys jailed Jordan Sherlock for a year and a half, as well as another brother, Damien Sherlock, for a year and a half for their roles in the attack.
Their father, James Sherlock, 49, escaped jail and received a two-year suspended sentence for his role. Damien Sherlock, 26, has 110 previous convictions with Declan Sherlock having 24 and James Sherlock having 21 previous convictions.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Ohiku said he continues to think ‘about my blood that was gushing from the six stab wounds that you have inflicted upon me every day and I have not been able to erase that from my head and mind’.
‘It will take me years to get over’ Demanded keys of couple’s car