Disabled woman living in fear after vicious attack in her home

A DISABLED woman blind in one eye lives in fear that a woman and her two accomplices will come back and kill her after carrying out an aggravated burglary at her home.

At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Donagh McDonagh imposed a five-year suspended sentence on Jessica Kelly, aged 23, of Lilac Court, Keyes Park, Limerick for her role in the aggravated burglary on Mary Maxwell of 41 Cappa Lodge, Sixmilebridge, Co Clare on September 21 2009.

Judge McDonagh said that Kelly — armed with a cut-off slash hook — and her two male accomplices armed with a broken samurai sword and a baseball bat “had terrorised a neighbourhood” after 5am on September 21, 2009.

Kelly also pleaded guilty to violent disorder and criminal damage at Cappa Lodge, Sixmilebridge. The other two offenders were sentenced for their role in the crime last year.

In her victim impact statement read out in court yesterday, Ms Maxwell said: “I am still afraid that the three will come back out of Limerick and will kill me …I had a brain aneurysm and stroke in 2006. I have semi-paralysis down my left side. My life was difficult enough being disabled, but being attacked has made life a lot worse for me.”

Counsel for the state, Stephen Coughlan, said the trio broke into the Maxwell home where Mary Maxwell was assaulted, sustaining one 5cm laceration above and one 6cm laceration below her left eye.

Counsel for Kelly, Laurence Goucher, said Kelly maintains she had no hand, act or part in the assault on Ms Maxwell, but was present in the Maxwell home at the time.

Judge McDonagh said he noted the assault charge wasn’t before the sentencing hearing, but said he believes Ms Maxwell’s “trenchant” evidence where she said she was attacked by a girl with a ‘S’ hook and “she was beating me”.

He said: “I can’t ignore Mrs Maxwell’s evidence.”

Garda Sandra Hartigan said that Ms Maxwell’s son, Robert appeared on the scene armed with a baseball bat to protect his mother and made an effort to get the three people out of the home.

Garda Hartigan said the three retreated from the Maxwell home and then went to 46 Cappa Lodge where the Devannys live and that home is occupied by two parents and five children, one of whom is blind.

Garda Hartigan told the court that the three smashed the windows of the home and the Devannys “were in absolute fear of their lives and retreated to a bedroom and locked themselves in to protect themselves”.

The garda said another local resident, Ciara Moloney was threatened by all three “and was in fear of her life”.

Mr Coughlan said there was evidence that shots were fired and, as a result, the three retreated to the home they were staying at Cappa Lodge. As a result of the shots being heard, the Regional Emergency Response Unit was called.

The judge imposed a five-year jail term on each of the three charges, but suspended the jail terms for five years on condition she enter a bond to keep the peace.