A thug who fractured a young woman’s skull with a machete while high on drink and drugs was jailed for nine and a half years.
A judge told 20-year-old Joshua O’Donnell, “you must surely appreciate how you risked killing her that night.”
He said that after “inflicting that terrible injury“ with the metre-long weapon he went back inside his flat, leaving Megan Lea’s friend to care for her as she lay bleeding on the ground.
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Liverpool Crown Court was told O’Donnell had only met his 18-year-old victim and her friend earlier that night after his friend had introduced them while they were out drinking in St Helens town centre.
Zillah Williams, prosecuting, said they met up again later in the early hours of October 5 last year in a club and the two girls agreed to go back to O’Donnell’s flat in Pennine Way in a taxi.
O’Donnell said he was going inside to get the money but came out with a baseball bat, which he gave to his friend, and the machete. The driver drove off, chased by the other man.
Miss Lea tried to calm down O’Donnell, who had consumed alcohol and cocaine, “and he simply struck her on the top of the head with the machete and she immediately staggered and fell to the floor.”
His friend came back and dialled 999 and Miss Lea was taken to hospital where it was found she had suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. She had a eight centimetre cut which needed seven stitches and has been left with a scar on her forehead.
When arrested shortly afterwards by armed police O’Donnell, who has a previous conviction for common assault on the mother of his child, her sister and a friend, said he could not remember the incident. Officers found various ornamental weapons in his flat.
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O’Donnell, who had not received a custodial sentence before, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent.
His lawyer, Ian Morris, said that the defendant was “disgusted and remorseful.”
He said the victim’s injuries were “fortunately not as bad as they could have been, to the almighty relief of the defendant.”
After imposing the lengthy sentence the judge, Recorder Matthew Corbett-Jones said he had read the impact statement of the victim, who was not present in court, and praised her for her fortitude.
He sadded: “She is a remarkable and brave young lady.”
In her “painful” statement she told how she is scarred for life and the judge said, “That will act as a cruel and constant reminder of the day that in her eyes she could have lost her life.
“She posed no threat to you and she was doing her best to calm you down.”
