A burglar who cut off an artist's fingers in her Dublin flat has been jailed for 16 years.
James Kenny, 35, from Eden Block in Prospect Hill, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary with a knife and a machete and to causing serious harm to the woman on 2 September 2009.
Judge Tony Hunt described the attack as 'unspeakable, almost medieval barbarity'.`
Alexandra Trotsenko was alone in her apartment in Finglas in September 2009 when she heard a knock on the door.
When she answered a man wearing a balaclava pushed past her demanding cash jewellery and credit cards.
He had two knives - a machete and a large kitchen knife.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told that Kenny bound and gagged the woman before using his weapons like a butcher.
He stabbed her in the face, neck, chest and abdomen.
He cut off her right fingers. She told the court that at one point she felt her only option was to play dead - but she said he checked her breathing and continued cutting her.
Kenny pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary with a knife and machete at the complex and to causing serious harm to the woman.
He told the court that he had no reason for the attack.
