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A MAN who severed a person’s fingers with a machete in Omagh is to be sentenced next month.
Deon Fullen (23) originally from Slievecoole Park in Omagh but now residing in Dungannon, had his plea hearing at Laganside Crown Court.
Having previously been charged with attempted murder and manslaughter, these charges were reduced to causing serious injuries with intent.
Manslaughter was left on the books but imposed as an ‘aggravating factor’ in the case.
On October 16, following a fight in an Omagh bar, Owen Brown and his father Paul walked two miles to Fullen’s house with the intention of ‘seeing what (the fight) was all about’.
They attended the address and spoke with Fullen’s father before the then 20-year-old, who was hiding, attacked the victims with a machete.
Owen Brown sustained injures to his head, nose, left arm and right hand, which medical professionals later describing his fingers as being left on ‘just by skin’.
The victim fled and attended a friend’s house nearby to call police and an ambulance.
Paul Brown followed on before collapsing from a heart attack. He was pronounced dead on arrival to hospital.
At interview at Omagh police station, Fullen admitted that there was a fight in the bar and that he was ‘nine out of ten’ drunk.
However, when asked what happened afterwards he declined to make any further comment.
The prosecution, whilst acknowledging that the Browns went to Fullen’s house ‘looking for a fight’, asserted that there was an element of pre-meditation by Fullen, as he had armed himself with a machete.
They said that whilst he had equipped the knife for ‘self-defence’, the act of using it was unlawful.
The prosecutor told the court that due to the injuries and subsequent death of Paul Brown, there was a ‘high culpability’ in this case.
He called for a ‘deterrent sentence’ of seven to nine years imprisonment.
Defence counsel, Ian Turkington, supported by Damien Halleron and solicitor Patrick Roche, said that the prosecutor’s sentencing suggestion was ‘inflated’ by the aggravating factors and should be lower.
Mr Turkington explained that Fullen, who has a clear record and good work ethic, had ‘panicked’ out of self-defence after two men came to his house looking for a fight.
He said that Fullen is remorseful, citing the pre-sentence report which said he became ‘emotional’ when talking about the incident and ‘wished he could turn the clock back’.
He added that Fullen is the carer to his father, who suffers from medical conditions, and works full time, having previously sought curfew extensions to work earlier.
Mrs Justice McBride adjourned the sentencing until November 7, stating that she wanted ‘time to reflect’ on both prosecution and defence submissions before passing sentence.
