{"id":340698,"date":"2026-03-11T14:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/340698\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:50:09","slug":"man-34-jailed-for-beating-woman-and-stabbing-man-in-front-of-her-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/340698\/","title":{"rendered":"Man (34) jailed for beating woman and stabbing man in front of her children"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who admitted breaking into a woman\u2019s home, beating her in front of her young children and stabbing her boyfriend has been jailed for six years.<\/p>\n

Stephen Power (34), who had prior convictions including for arson, possession of knives, possession of drugs for sale or supply, burglary, theft, and criminal damage, was sentenced by Judge Colin Daly at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

Power, with an address at The Path, Garryowen, Limerick, broke into the woman\u2019s home at Galbally, Co Limerick, in the early hours of Christmas Eve, December 24th, 2024.<\/p>\n

Prosecuting barrister, Lily Buckley, instructed by County Limerick State Solicitor, Brendan Gill, assisted on facts by Garda Denis O\u2019Connor, said the woman and her two young children, and her boyfriend, were getting ready for bed when Power and others appeared at her front door trying to kick in the door.<\/p>\n

Armed with a knife, Power gained entry to the house and stabbed the woman\u2019s boyfriend twice in his back as the man tried to protect his partner and her two young children.<\/p>\n

The injured man \u201cpulled the knife out of his own back\u201d, and one of the children, aged 11, ran from the house to raise the alarm with neighbours, said Buckley.<\/p>\n

The boy suffered severe trauma after he witnessed the knife attack on the man and assault on his mother, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The boy ran barefoot to a neighbouring property, told investigating garda\u00ed that he thought Power \u201cwas going to catch me\u201d.<\/p>\n

The boy told garda\u00ed he had seen his mother being dragged out of the house and assaulted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe expressed concern that his mother had been killed\u201d, said Buckley.<\/p>\n

Power and others continued to attack the woman outside her house.<\/p>\n

The woman told garda\u00ed afterwards that Power \u201cbeat the s**t out of me\u201d and that he and the other persons at the scene \u201cbehaved like animals\u201d.<\/p>\n

Power also slashed tyres on the woman\u2019s car outside her home on the same night; he also damaged a doorbell camera at the woman\u2019s house in an attempt to destroy video evidence of the attack.<\/p>\n

The woman\u2019s boyfriend told garda\u00ed he felt \u201ctwo sharp pains\u201d in his back when Power stabbed him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was losing blood and getting weaker, his clothes were blood-soaked, and there was quite a bit of blood on walls at the scene,\u201d said Buckley.<\/p>\n

Previously in court, Power smiled when evidence of the violent attack was being described by\u00a0Buckley.<\/p>\n

The court heard the attack may have been sparked by tensions between the injured mother and another woman.<\/p>\n

The court heard there was no video footage available from the doorbell camera, garda\u00ed retrieved some video footage which had been recorded on a mobile phone, it was heard.<\/p>\n

The injured woman\u2019s boyfriend was treated in hospital for two stab wounds, requiring surgery, but he had made a full recovery.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed recovered a knife and a broken blade at the scene and arrested Power the morning after the attack.<\/p>\n

Power initially denied having anything to do with the attack. He was charged with assault causing harm to the woman, assault causing harm to the woman\u2019s boyfriend, criminal damage and aggravated burglary.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Power pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing harm to the woman\u2019s boyfriend, on a full facts basis, meaning he accepted all of the evidence presented by the prosecution in court.<\/p>\n

The injured parties chose not to write victim impact statements.<\/p>\n

Power\u2019s own barrister, senior counsel Mark Nicholas, described the attack was \u201cdisgraceful\u201d, \u201cdisturbing\u201d, \u201cunacceptable\u201d and \u201cdeplorable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nicholas had previously asked Judge Daly to be as lenient as he could when passing sentence. Nicholas argued that Power was a \u201cserious drug addict\u201d and that the attack was \u201cin keeping with his chaotic and addictive lifestyle\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Investigation<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Investigation launched after body of man (40s) discovered in Cavan<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Nicholas argued that Power\u2019s addictions were \u201cnot an excuse\u201d, but that they may have explained his behaviour on the night in \u201crecognising the horror he was part of\u201d.<\/p>\n

Daly said it was \u201cespecially egregious\u201d that the attack took place during Christmas in front of children in their home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe memo of the specialist garda interview with the child makes for grim reading,\u201d said the judge.<\/p>\n

Power was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison, with the final nine months suspended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who admitted breaking into a woman\u2019s home, beating her in front of her young children and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-340698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}