A MAN HAS has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years for a “horrifying” knife attack on his former wife.

Bayarsaikhan Davaatseren (45), a policeman from Mongolia, stabbed his then-wife four times inflicting two serious wounds – one breaking her sternum and another potentially fatal wound that caused her chest cavity to fill with blood.

Following the attack he told her that she should tell the gardaí what had happened.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the woman would have “drowned in her own blood” without immediate medical intervention. She had managed to get out of the apartment before collapsing on the street outside.

Davaatseren, who himself was hospitalised overnight after being found collapsed in the city centre with a “near lethal” blood alcohol level, handed himself into gardaí the following day, telling detectives he had “done something bad”.

Davaatseren, formerly of Dominick Street Upper, Dublin, pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to his former wife at their home on 20 January 2018.

Judge Martin Nolan said it was a “horrifying attack” and it was lucky that the woman did not die.

He said intoxication was no defence and the injuries sustained by the victim were entirely foreseeable in a knife attack. He said Davaatseren had definite issues with control, particularly when he had taken alcohol. He gave credit for his early plea, co-operation, insight and remorse.

Judge Nolan imposed an eight-and-a-half-year sentence.

Detective Garda Timothy O’Sullivan told Maddie Grant BL, prosecuting, that he and a colleague responded to a call that a female had been stabbed, and found the distressed victim bleeding heavily on a footpath on Dominick Street.

The woman said she had been stabbed by her husband who was in the apartment complex. The Armed Support Unit were called to the scene and established, following a search, that the man was not inside the complex.

Knives found in sink

Knives were found in the sink of the apartment, one with suspected blood on it. There was also blood on the walls and floor.

The woman was brought to the Mater Hospital where she underwent surgery. She remained in hospital and in step-down care for two months recovering from her injuries.

O’Sullivan said the woman would have “drowned in her own blood” without surgery.

The victim later described to gardaí how she had come home from work that evening and smelled alcohol on her husband. She was preparing dinner when he began shouting and indicating he wanted money from her purse. She described him saying he was going to kill her.

She said Davaatseren took her hand with the knife she was using to peel vegetables and put it up to his own throat and said, ‘Kill me, I need your fingerprints’. She said she would not and dropped it.

Davaatseren then told her he was going to kill her, he stabbed her in the back as she tried to run and she fell to the ground on her back. He then knelt on her and drove the knife downwards into her chest hitting her sternum with the blade. She tried to kick him away and pleaded with him.

The woman said she closed her eyes during the attack and thought she was going to die. The man then got off her and when she opened her eyes he was sitting in a chair. He told her to call the gardaí. She ran out of the apartment and collapsed on the street outside.

Sullivan said gardaí were later able to establish that Davaatseren left the apartment and walked around until he was found unconscious and taken to hospital by ambulance. He was so intoxicated he was unable to speak or give his details on admission.

Davaatseren presented himself at Bridewell Garda Station just after 8am the following day in a highly intoxicated condition. He began making admissions at the front desk and said he could remember the verbal argument but not his actions afterwards.

Deported

O’Sullivan said Davaatseren’s application for asylum has been refused and he will be deported following his sentence.

Davaatseren has 13 previous convictions including four under the Domestic Violence Act, two for assault, four for public order offences and two for theft.

A victim impact statement was handed into court.

O’Sullivan told Caroline Biggs SC, defending, that Davaatseren had made admissions “straight off the bat” and agreed that he had not tried to frustrate the investigation but could not remember his exact physical actions.

He agreed that the man blamed himself, described his actions as horrible and asked for updates on his wife’s condition. He said the man became quite emotional during the garda interviews.

The garda said the woman had told Davaatseren that she had intended to leave him.

Biggs said her client had come to Ireland in 2003 from a small province in Mongolia. His father had been a violent alcoholic. Davaatseren spent two years in mandatory military service before enrolling as a police officer where he worked for six years.

She said he worked in various jobs after coming to Ireland; in construction, as a kitchen porter and a cleaner. He had been made redundant in the year prior to the attack.

Biggs asked the court to take into account that his family have been lost to him as a result of his actions and that he would find time in custody harder as he has little English and no visitors. She said he was actively seeking rehabilitation, pleaded guilty at an early stage and was remorseful.