A BURGLAR who cut a number of fingers from an artist’s hand and used knives on her “like a butcher” during a break-in has been jailed for 16 years.

Judge Tony Hunt described James Kenny’s attack on the victim, “a talented artist”, as “unspeakable, almost medieval barbarity”. He said the woman had been left with a constant physical reminder “of the horror visited upon her”.

The victim was said to be of east European origin and named in court documents as Alexandra Trotsenko.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Kenny (35) pushed his way into Ms Trotsenko’s apartment in September 2009 wearing a balaclava. He took a number of items before binding and gagging her and later attacking her.

He told gardaí he had no reason to attack her, had a problem with painkillers, and had just wanted money.

Ms Trotsenko said Kenny used the knives on her “like a butcher”. She said she was sliding around in blood and felt her only option at one point was to play dead. She lost consciousness and when she awoke, she made her way to a local hotel where she collapsed and staff called an ambulance.

Ms Trotsenko needed to be resuscitated on her arrival at hospital. She had suffered three deep facial lacerations as well as life-threatening wounds. She had stab wounds to her neck, abdomen and chest.

Her ring finger and little finger had been amputated at joints and her middle and index finger partially amputated. Doctors were able to successfully reattach her middle finger but she lost the other finger portions. Her facial scars are also still visible.

Kenny, Prospect Hill, Finglas, Dublin, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary with a knife and machete at another block of the Prospect Hill complex and to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to the woman on September 2nd, 2009.

Breffni Gordon, defending, said Kenny had completed a first aid course while in prison and was now studying computer science.

He said his client had now, “for the first time, experienced a huge degree of remorse and emotional upset having spent a long period of time trying to work out why he was the person he was at the time of the offence”.

He told Judge Hunt that Kenny had written a letter to his victim.

“He has created a gulf or a void between himself and society. He has lost every relationship he enjoyed, does not see his children and has no contact with the outside world,” Mr Gordon said.

The court heard that Ms Trotsenko is an artist but is unable to hold a pen. She had an exhibition of her work in St Stephen’s Green in 2006 to some acclaim and had illustrated a children’s book. She had been planning to illustrate a further book before the attack. She has never returned to the apartment.

Kenny has a number of previous convictions for theft and a conviction for a serious assault in 1998. In that incident, he broke into the home of a 58-year-old man with whom he had a problem, and tied him up. When the man tried to escape, he stabbed him a number of times. When the man escaped over a balcony, Kenny turned his attention to the man’s partner and stabbed her 10 times.

He received a four-year sentence for that offence.

Judge Hunt said Ms Trotsenko’s life was “irretrievably altered and society has been deprived of the talented and cultured person she is”.

In a previous hearing, Det Garda Paul Ryan told Pieter Le Vert, prosecuting, that Ms Trotsenko was alone at home when she heard a knock on the door. When she answered, a man wearing a balaclava pushed past her.

He had two knives, a machete and a large kitchen knife. The woman initially thought it was a joke but quickly realised something was wrong. He demanded cash, credit cards and jewellery.

Kenny brought her to the bedroom, pushed her on to the bed and said he would not hurt her.

He took a laptop, phone and modem, then asked for jewellery and credit cards. Ms Trotsenko pointed towards the wardrobe and he began emptying boxes.

He bound her with neck ties and put another tie around her mouth. He stood behind her at the wardrobe and she felt a cut to her head, then her head hit the wardrobe. She felt a further cut and thought she fell unconscious. When she awoke she felt kicks to her back and she said he then began using the knives on her “like a butcher”.

She said she was sliding around in her blood and decided her only chance was to play dead.

He checked her breathing and then continued cutting her. When he realised she was not dead, he told her to put her hand on the bed, she felt a cut and her hand go numb. She tried to lift herself up but was unable and lost consciousness after another cut to her back.

When she awoke the man was gone, and she made her way to a local hotel where she collapsed.

Gardaí recovered CCTV from the area and received confidential information that the stolen items could be found at Kenny’s address.