Man in court over '˜drink-fuelled' stabbing at barbeque in Coalisland

Emil Farfara, 26, was refused bail on a charge of attempted murder over the alleged knife attack early last Sunday morning.

The victim was stabbed twice in the back, sustaining liver damage and punctures to his lung and diaphragm, prosecutors said.

Police called to the house at Moorlands in Coalisland discovered the wounded man lying face down in a back garden with four others trying to administer first aid.

Farfara, who says he acted in self-defence, was detained three miles away about an hour later.

Robin Steer, prosecuting, claimed the attack happened while four Romanian men and two Lithuanian women were having a drink-fuelled barbeque.

Farfara, of Obins Street in Portadown, was allegedly acting in a “strange” way, staring constantly at the women and trying to talk to them.

He is accused of later brandishing a knife used to prepare food and stabbing one of the other men as they tried to disarm him.

It was claimed that before collapsing the victim shouted: “He got me, call an ambulance.”

Madam Justice McBride was told Farfara sustained facial cuts and bruising to his head and body after being held over a fence when tensions flared at the house.

“He says he was being choked around the throat and at that stage he accepted acting in self-defence and having stabbed the injured party,” a defence barrister said.

Denying bail, the judge noted that the accused has only been in Northern Ireland for two months, working for a food company in Craigavon while his wife and child stay in Romania.

She ruled that he should remain in custody due to the risk of not turning up for trial.