A man who left his ex-girlfriend with lifelong injuries after he tried to murder her by stabbing her 50 times has been jailed for 14 years and warned not to contact her.
Sentencing Josh O’Brien (22) today, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring described the violence he used on Niamh Kelly (21) as “breathtaking”. Her survival was “nothing short of a miracle”, the judge said, but she now lives a “totally different life” and will face limitations and challenges nobody should have to endure.
“All of this was avoidable. All of it flows from the actions of Josh O’Brien. At the time of the attack, Ms Kelly had gone to get ready for a concert the following day. She never made it to that concert and those carefree days are gone, too,” the judge said.
However well she rehabilitates, Ms Justice Ring said the victim’s “clock will only go forward and what she has lost will never be returned ... she is confined to her new circumstances for the rest of her life”.
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Relationships, the judge said, “should be based on love, respect and trust, not manipulation, abuse and violence”.
Women are predominantly the victims, she said, and lives are often lost or, as in this case, profoundly changed.
Having regard to the level of violence used, the fact that O’Brien stabbed his victim with a knife he had been carrying for some time and that the victim suffered life-altering, permanent injuries, she set a headline sentence of 19 years.
After considering O’Brien’s immediate admission to gardaí, his early guilty plea, his lack of previous convictions, his age and mental health background, she reduced the sentence to 15 years and six months with the final 18 months suspended.
O’Brien must keep all appropriate appointments with the probation services following his release and must not contact Ms Kelly for five years.
O’Brien, of Walkinstown Avenue, Crumlin, Dublin 12, pleaded guilty earlier this year to the attempted murder of Ms Kelly at Firhouse Road, Firhouse, Dublin 24 on September 19th, 2024.
Outside court Ms Kelly told media that she had hoped for a heavier sentence but was happy that O’Brien is “not walking away and getting away with anything he’s done to me”. She said she respects the judge’s decision.
She said she continues to require physiotherapy to help strengthen her leg and requires a wheelchair when going long distances. However, she feels grateful that she has the opportunity “to stand here” and wants to get stronger for her son.
At a previous hearing, Det Gda John Dalton told the court that the attack lasted up to six minutes and a piece of the knife O’Brien used remains lodged in Ms Kelly’s skull. She spent seven months in hospital recovering from her injuries and is still undergoing therapy. She is blind in one eye.
Det Gda Dalton told prosecutor Vincent Heneghan SC that O’Brien and Ms Kelly had been in a relationship for over a year and had a baby boy together. He said that in the summer of 2023, the relationship “got rocky”, with O’Brien on one occasion calling Ms Kelly names on Snapchat, saying she would be “a terrible mother” and calling her “a c*nt, a slag, a slut”.
Two months before the attack, O’Brien got angry and again called her names, before pushing her on to a bed and threatening to kill her. Det Dalton said that on September 19th, O’Brien and Ms Kelly were walking towards where Ms Kelly lived, when O’Brien told her he wanted to get back together.
Det Dalton said O’Brien started punching Ms Kelly to the face and kicking at her, before he pushed her to the ground, took out a knife and stabbed her repeatedly.
Ms Kelly described it as “a flicky blade” and said she was shouting at him to stop while he was stabbing her. He stabbed her in the torso and back, while she also suffered injuries around her head. O’Brien stood on Ms Kelly’s head, with the attack continuing for five to six minutes before nearby security personnel tried to stop O’Brien and he ran away.
Ms Kelly suffered over 50 stab wounds throughout her entire body. Det Dalton said that during garda interview, O’Brien said Ms Kelly was turning her back on him, so he felt betrayed. He told gardaí he was hearing voices saying, “don’t take that disrespect”, and he had four drinks on the day of the attack. “I didn’t intend to kill her, I was just listening to the voices ... I didn’t want to kill her; if I really wanted to kill her, I would have continued,” O’Brien told gardaí.
In her victim impact statement , Ms Kelly said her life “changed forever both physically and mentally”. “I was defenceless ... Only for an off-duty paramedic, I would have been left to die,” she said.
“All the things I wanted to do with my life are gone. I cried and cried, believing my life was over,” she said. “As a 21-year-old, I feel that my future has been destroyed.”
