Two takeaway workers jailed for meat cleaver fight over who was better chef

Eoin Reynolds and Isabel Hayes

Two take-away workers who attacked one another with meat cleavers in a row over "who was the better chef" have been sent to prison after their original sentences of community service were deemed too lenient.

Dawei Zhang (38) and Han Chung Tang (46) were on Thursday sentenced by the three-judge Court of Appeal to two years and six months in prison with the final 12 months suspended on condition they be of good behaviour.

The court overturned the original sentence of 240 hours of community service handed down by Judge Martina Baxter at the Circuit Court last year.

The court heard that one of the men ended up with a meat cleaver stuck in his back and needed a blood transfusion along with treatment for stab wounds to his head, forearm and back.

The other man suffered lacerations to his scalp, chest and shoulder.

Joe Mulrean BL, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), told the appeal court that sentences imposed by the courts must deter people from committing violent crimes using dangerous weapons.

He added: "How is general deterrence served if a person can engage in such ferocious acts of violence and walk out of court without a significant punishment?"

Mr Mulrean played CCTV footage which showed Zhang initially attacking Tang in the kitchen of the restaurant without a weapon in what the court described as "fisticuffs".

Mr Mulrean said Tang accepted in garda interviews that he was first to take up a meat cleaver but when the two men went through a back door of the kitchen to an area not covered by CCTV, they were both armed with cleavers.

Tang received the worst injuries and ended up with a cleaver "buried in his back which broke his shoulder blade," counsel said.

John Byrne SC, for Zhang, said Judge Baxter's sentence was lenient but not unduly so. He said the sentencing judge had given a careful and reasoned sentence taking into account his client's lack of previous convictions, good character, work history and early guilty plea.

Padraig Dwyer SC, for Tang, said the incident was an "explosion of violence" after tensions between the two workmates had been simmering.

Both men are of good character and considered low risk for reoffending, Mr Dwyer said, but got "sucked into a violent episode" and picked up weapons that were freely available.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy delivered judgment, saying that imprisonment for serious assaults using dangerous weapons is necessary as a deterrent to others. There must be exceptional circumstances to justify a non-custodial sentence and the court found none in this case, he said.

Mr Justice McCarthy quashed the original sentence of community service on the grounds it was unduly lenient and imposed in its place one of two-and-a-half years imprisonment with the final 12 months suspended.

Both men entered bonds to be of good behaviour during the period of their suspended sentence before being taken away by prison officers.