Belfast: Man jailed after attacking woman with machete

Murray and the victim had known each other for around 10 years and had fallen out in October 2022, Belfast Crown Court heard.

It was during the evening of 10 January 2023 when the violent incident took place in Belfast.

At around 22:30 the injured party received a call from her friend, who was a former partner of Murray, about social media posts he had made.

Murray made derogatory comments about the victim and her family in these posts and had threatened to “get” her.

After being informed about these social media posts the victim decided to confront Murray as they encountered each other on the street, it was then that he revealed a machete from his jacket.

Fearing for her life, the injured party ran away from Murray where she ran onto a road and was almost hit by a car.

She then ran into a garden but Murray caught up with her, and after swiping the weapon at her head, she fell to the ground.

In a bid to protect herself the woman tucked her legs up to her chest to protect herself as she lay on the ground.

Murray then began to slash her legs with the machete repeatedly and the victim begged him to stop.

The attack stopped briefly and she managed to crawl across the garden on all fours.

Murray then resumed his attack and chopped at her left leg and the assault only came to an end when a resident came out of the house.

The victim recalled being in immense pain as she lost a lot of blood.

She was taken to hospital where she sustained extensive wounds to her legs including a deep lacerations to the back of her left thigh and the lower section of her left leg.

Multiple wounds to both legs and feet were documented by a medic who treated her in an emergency department.