Man receives nine-year jail term following ‘frenzied knife attack’

Man receives nine-year jail term following ‘frenzied knife attack’

3 July 2019

A NEWCASTLE man who stabbed a woman and three men in what was described as a “frenzied knife attack” at a house party in Saintfield has been jailed for nine years.

At Downpatrick Crown Court last Friday 48 year-old Matthew Kane was ordered to serve half the sentence in custody, with the remainder to be served on licence.

Judge Piers Grant told Kane he would have jailed him for 12 years if he had not pleaded guilty, remarking that the evidence against him was “overwhelming”.

Kane, of Central Promenade, went on a stabbing spree after seeing his partner in the arms of another man on March 11 last year  — Mother’s Day.

During the attack he stabbed a woman in the neck with a Stanley knife, left one man with his throat slashed, another with a slice wound along his face and a third with wounds to his cheek, ear and back.

Passing sentence, Judge Grant said Kane had been motivated by a “high level of jealousy”.

He remarked: “What had started out as an otherwise good spirited evening became increasingly angry.”

The judge said the incident, which had to be seen in the context of domestic abuse, was “at the top end of this kind of offending” and that Kane’s actions were “wholly inexcusable”.

He said Kane had a “high level of culpability” and “posed a significant risk for some time”.

Kane, who has 13 previous convictions, including two for burglary, pleaded guilty to four counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and a further charge of possessing an offensive weapon.

An earlier court heard how Kane carried out the multiple attacks after he saw his partner through a bedroom window with a man and they had their arms around each other.

Kane, who had been drinking wine and was said to be “fulminating in jealousy and suspicion”, tried to call and text his partner before he went to the house.

Kane tried to get into the house and when he was refused entry, he started slashing anyone who got in his way.

When a woman tried to stop him, Kane put his foot in the front door before pulling her down by her hair.

A prosecution lawyer said that when she felt a blow to the head she thought she had been punched, “but she was soon to discover that he had stabbed her”. 

The woman’s brother then tried to tackle Kane to the ground, but received a deep wound to his neck. 

A neighbour tried to intervene and punched Kane, who retaliated by leaving him with a “zig zag” knife wound to his back and cuts to his cheek and ear lobe.

A third man —the son of the woman stabbed earlier — struck Kane with a golf club. Kane responded by slashing him with the knife and swinging a hammer at him.

Kane drove off after the attack, but gave himself up to police in Lurgan seven hours later.

Welcoming the sentence, Detective Chief Inspector Julie Mullan said: “There is no sentence that will compensate for the horror and the terror inflicted by Kane on his victims. 

“It is a miracle lives were not lost as a result of what was a savage and violent attack. 

“Kane’s victims, three men and a woman — including a member of the public in a neighbouring property who had come to help — were left extremely traumatised as a result of what was a frenzied and violent attack.”