Kildare chef jailed for attacking a sex worker

By Declan Brennan

A chef who used a professional kitchen knife to attack a sex worker after they had sex has been jailed for three years.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that during the frenzied attack in November 2020, Danilo De Silva (41) was shouting at the woman “like a crazy man” to give him money.  She said he struck the knife at her head and throat but she managed to shield the blows using her hand.

When gardaí arrived at the scene, the palm of her hand had a large cut and was covered in blood. De Silva had fled the scene but was later arrested.

The woman also sustained a small cut to her face. In her victim impact statement, she said she has struggled with anxiety and fear since the attack.

In June 2021 De Silva of Jigginstown, Naas, Co Kildare pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the woman at her home in Clondalkin on November, 2020.

Garda Alan Lagrue told Aideen Collard BL, prosecuting, that the victim was operating as a sex worker at the apartment at the time. De Silva arrived by appointment and they had consensual sex after which De Silva produced the large knife.

The court heard that he had previously worked as a professional chef but was out of work once again at the time after the country had gone back into lockdown due to Covid 19 transmission rates.

Emer Ní Chúagáin BL, defending, told the court that her client was taking the offending very seriously and had brought a number of character references to court.

Judge Pauline Codd said that this was an attack on the most vulnerable of women, a woman working in the sex industry. She noted that De Silva did not deliberately set out to bring the knives and they were in his backpack from his work as a chef.

She said there has to be deterrence to this sort of attack of vulnerable women. She sentenced De Silva to three years’ imprisonment.