Stabbed mother and her teenage son

Jessica Magee

A father-of-one who stabbed a teenager and his mother following a drunken row at an engagement party has been given a five year sentence.

Michael “Dukie” Duke (25) pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of assault causing harm at a house on Barry Avenue in Finglas on February 15, 2011.

The victim said that Duke stabbed the two victims in their home “in a frenzy, like a fella out of his head on drugs,” after following them home from the pub.

Duke, of Aughnaskerry Drive, Cavan, apologised in court and said he was very ashamed of his behaviour.

“If I'd been in my right mind I wouldn't have done it. Obviously I deserve what I get,” he told Judge Martin Nolan.

Judge Nolan sentenced him to five years in prison but suspended the final 18 months on condition that he keeps the peace for the suspended part of his sentence.

He said Duke had a “propensity for violence” and became “a pretty dangerous man” when he took drugs, but warned that drugs provided no excuse for his actions.

The argument between Duke and Michael Keenan, then aged 17, began at the Priorswood Inn in Coolock at a party celebrating Mr Keenan's engagement.

The row escalated when another co-accused man jumped in, before progressing to a nearby fast food outlet.

Duke and the other man later made their way to the victims' home brandishing a knife and a pitchfork.

The court heard that the co-accused man has now fled the country and a bench warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Detective Garda Pat McDonagh told Colm O'Briain BL, prosecuting, that everyone involved in the row had a lot to drink and that their families were known to each other for a long time.

He said that after Michael Keenan and his family had returned to their home on the night, there was a knock at the door and Duke was standing there with a knife.

His co-accused was behind him wielding a pitchfork.

The Keenans tried to escape out their back door into the garden, but Duke followed them and Mr Keenan was stabbed in the middle of his back.

When his mother, Winnie Keenan, tried to intervene to protect her son, Duke stabbed her in the back of her left thigh with a knife.

Mr Keenan then sought to push Duke away from his mother and he got stabbed in the neck.

Duke and the other man then “made a run for it” and the Keenans called an ambulance and gardaí.

Mr Keenan got six stitches for stab wounds to the upper back and neck at Blanchardstown Hospital, while his mother was treated by her GP the following day.

He took to the stand to say he was told by a nurse that the stab wound to his neck was a millimetre away from an artery.

He said he gets nervous in crowds since the assault and is jumpy and nervous every time he hears a bang. He has difficulty sleeping and trusting other people and is always looking over his shoulder.

Duke has 50 previous convictions, including assault, misuse of drugs and threats to kill. He was on bail at the time of the assaults.

Dominic McGinn SC, defending, said Duke himself was injured on the night and suffered a stab wound to his thigh which required stitches.

He said his client had been involved in drugs from the age of 16 and had a difficult childhood.

The court heard that Duke did five months of a rehabilitation programme in Coolmine in 2012 but relapsed afterwards.

Duke's wife Majella gave evidence that her husband is a good partner and father when he was not on drugs.

She said they had separated for a while because of his drug use and she had made him choose between drugs and his family, and he chose his family.

“Drugs can change the best of men, your honour. He is a very, very good person,” she said, appealing for leniency.

Duke is currently serving a 16-month sentence that began last month.

Judge Nolan ordered him to engage with probation services for 18 months on his release from prison, and directed that he be given credit for any time already served for this offence.