A young man with "a propensity to violence" has been jailed for seven years for an unprovoked and savage attack on a man.
Daniel Martin (21) was also jailed for a stabbing incident on a Luas the previous year and a hi-jacking in Dublin city centre during which he slashed the driver's shoulder with a blade.
The court heard that Martin, who was raised by his grandmother having been abandoned by his mother as a baby, drank 16 cans of beer in one hour, before he jumped into the passenger seat of Noel Comer's vehicle while it was stopped at traffic lights.
He later told gardaí that he had just heard that his terminally ill grandmother's condition had deteriorated and without her he didn't care about himself.
Martin was arrested in the days after the hijacking and was brought before the courts where he was charged with this and the earlier incident on the Luas. Gardaí objected to bail but he was released pending a file being prepared.
The following month he attacked Wayne Donovan in a case of mistaken identity. Martin first swung at the victim with a stick with nails in it before he struck him a second time, cutting the man's little finger.
Wounds
He then used both a broken bottle and a stick to beat Mr Donovan about the head and face causing large wounds to his face and head.
The victim feared he was going to die while he was waiting for an ambulance.
He spent three days in intensive care and lost two pints of blood which required a blood transfusion. He received stitches to a large cut to the back of his head and a deep cut to the left side of his face.
Mr Donovan was released from hospital after five days but there were concerns he had some damage to facial nerves. He has since made a full recovery although he has been left with subtle scarring to his face and the back of his head.
Martin, of Rossfield Gardens in Tallaght, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a weapon, unlawful seizure of a car, assault causing harm and assault causing serious harm on dates between August 5, 2013 and June 15, 2014. He has no previous convictions.
In April this year, he asked for his bail to be revoked and requested a remand in custody because he was worried about not being able to control his anger. He had previously asked to be admitted into a psychiatric hospital but was released after it was deemed he didn't have a mental illness.
Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Martin to two years for the first two incidents and a consecutive term of five years for the assault on Mr Donovan.