Offaly apartment like 'abattoir' after horrific attack on 'friend'

A SAVAGE attack on a man in Tullamore was so bloody that Judge Keenan Johnson said the apartment where it took place looked like an abattoir afterwards.

Judge Johnson was commenting at Tullamore Circuit Court where he viewed photographs during the sentencing of Dylan McMahon (31), Kilpatrick, Kildangan, Monasterevin.

Mr McMahon had previously pleaded guilty to assaulting Kasper Lusztzylski, causing him harm, at an apartment at Church Street, Tullamore on October 18, 2023.

He also admitted producing a frying pan wok and criminal damage during the assault and Judge Johnson sentenced him to three-and-a-half years in prison, to run consecutively to a six-year jail term he is already serving for a separate assault.

Garda Niamh Abbott told the Circuit Court that the victim had been found bleeding at Market Square, close to Market Lane, which links the square with Mr Lusztzylski's flat on Church Street on the morning of October 18, 2023.

Though Garda Abbot knew him she did not recognise him because he had very extensive facial and head injuries and stab marks on the scalp.

He was taken to hospital and said he'd been stabbed in his apartment on Church Street by 'Dylan', a friend of his he had previously met at Portlaoise psychiatric hospital and who had asked to stay the previous night.

When gardai entered the flat they found extensive bloodstaining along with a broken knife with hair on it.

In a statement to the gardai, Mr Lusztzylski said he had met Mr McMahon off the train the previous evening and they had gone to purchase alcohol, after which they stayed in the flat drinking and taking drugs all night.

At 9am they went to a local pub but did not stay long there and returned to the apartment where Mr Lusztzylski said he was texting his girlfriend.

Shortly after that Dylan McMahon snapped and was picking things up and threatening the victim. He hit him with a frying pan on the head, punched him and said he was going to stab him and kill him.

The victim had been backed into a corner and was then forced to his knees but eventually made his escape to the laneway where gardai arrived at about 11am.

A report from the emergency department said Mr Lusztzylski had a broken nose and up to seven lacerations, one of which was six centimetres long.

The court was told that Detective Sergeant Caroline Lyng was on her way to Church Street from the garda station on the morning of the offence when she came upon an individual at Patrick Street, intoxicated and with bloodstained clothing.

He was identified as Dylan McMahon and was arrested. He was very intoxicated and aggressive. He said he needed his medication, had been defending himself earlier and otherwise didn't have a recollection.

He specifically denied having a knife and stabbing the other man.

In a victim impact statement read in court by prosecution counsel, William Fennelly, Mr Lusztzylski said that after the assault he was trying to rebuild his life and he had received a grant to fund third level education but could not continue it because of the trauma of the attack and homelessness.

He said he'd been told at the hospital that he was lucky to only have a broken nose and in December 2023 on one occasion when he was walking home he lost all bodily functions and lay on the pavement in the cold and rain until a stranger carried him home.

He said he experiences pain, fatigue, bad dreams, headaches, panic attacks, depression, anxiety and possibly PTSD. “I feel like I can't trust people at all,” he said.

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He said he hated people asking him about his scars and why he was homeless. “People often tell me I look scary”.

He said he lived in a tent and B&Bs and one of the latter was 30km away from where he previously lived and he had to get up at 3am and cycle and walk to get to his former town at 6am where he was studying business and law.

He said he was assaulted again in December 2024 and when he returned to Tullamore he found it difficult because that was where the previous trauma occurred.

He lost his savings and still lived in a B&B and continued to worry about his attacker getting out and coming after him.

Mr Lusztzylski said he wanted to kill himself on four different occasions and attempted to do so once.

Having relapsed into drink and drugs he had been sober since March of this year and was going to the gym and focusing on himself.

He was paying €60 per week for therapy and was looking forward to starting a job at general manual labour with a construction company.

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Mr McMahon had 36 previous convictions for offences such as breaches of public order, criminal damage, theft, burglary and assault causing harm.

Andrea Callan, BL, defending, said both men had drunk alcohol and taken D10s [Diazepam] and cocaine and though the assault was violent, she said while a wok had been used a knife hadn't and the wok was the article mentioned in the indictment.

Judge Johnson said the victim's injuries were consistent with stab wounds, a knife covered in blood had been found and Mr Lusztzylski had “straight cuts”.

Outlining Mr McMahon's background, Ms Callan said that 10 years ago he had been in a car accident and sustained a very significant acquired brain injury.

As a result he was on significant medication for a variety of symptoms, including mood and anxiety, had insomnia and his overall psychological functioning was impaired.

He often presented as quite articulate but then had erratic outbursts exacerbated by consumption of alcohol and drugs.

Ms Callan said he was unable to live independently, had emotional disregulation and impulsivity but fell just short of where there would be a fitness to plead issue. His mother passed away and she was a stabilising influence on him.

Judge Johnson described Mr McMahon as a “Jekyll and Hyde character” who took drink and drugs when he was out in the community.

“It was actually a savage, frenetic attack on the victim, fuelled by drink, drugs and serious mental health issues,” he said.

The judge said he had huge sympathy for the victim who had been through a horrific experience.

“He has multiple stab wounds and injuries to his head, his eyes were [injured] to the extent he couldn't see out through them.”

Also, his confidence in his ability to go back to education had been shattered.

The judge ranked the offending at the “highest end of the high end” so the headline sentence would be five years, the maximum applicable at the time. That had since been increased to 10 years, Judge Johnson noted.

He reduced it by 18 months because of the accused man's early plea of guilty but said it was correct to make the three-and-a-half years consecutive to the six years he had himself imposed in Mullingar Circuit Court previously.

“The victim's apartment, in all honesty, it looks like an abattoir, there is blood everywhere, on the walls, on the floor, it's absolutely horrific”.

He said the excessive use of drugs and alcohol is what causes the accused to offend.

Mr McMahon has been in custody since October 19, 2023, the date of the assault.