A 61-year-old man who knifed his partner's daughter from ear to mouth in a vicious, unprovoked attack has been jailed for four years.
Patrick O'Connor, a father-of-three, violently assaulted Ms June De Khors after she had been out with her mother, Ms Theresa De Khors, and later returned to the flat that the couple shared.
He shouted at the 37-year-old Ms De Khors that he was going to knife her and slit her throat before he lunged at the woman with a carving knife, grabbed her hair and held her down.
He slashed her face from her ear to her mouth while her mother looked on screaming.
O'Connor, from Hampstead Court, Ballymun, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to Ms De Khors on July 17th, 2002. He has one previous conviction.
Judge Frank O'Donnell suspended the last 12 months of the sentence because of the age of the accused and up until this he had never been in any real trouble with the law throughout his life.
"The one central theme that dominates the patchwork of violence in this case is the picture of a young, attractive female being held down by a stronger and vengeful man and him cutting her across the face as she begged him to leave her alone," he said.
A visibly distraught Ms De Khors ran from the courtroom crying after the sentence. She said: "That's not justice. That's all he gets for ruining my life."