Woman who shot husband walks free today

A mother-of-two who shot her husband dead during a drunken row walked free from court today.

Norma Cotter, aged 36, was sentenced to three years and six months' jail at the Central Criminal Court for the manslaughter of her husband Gary, aged 40, who was a corporal in the Army.

But she avoided being sent back to prison because she had served her time awaiting trial.

Handing down the sentence, Mr Justice Michael Peart said there were "times when the court's punishment must be tempered with some mercy and compassion".

Cotter killed her husband at their Co Cork home on January 3, 1995 with a shotgun she had bought him for Christmas just over a week earlier.

A row had broken out between the pair when she walked into their upstairs bedroom at 4.30am and vomited after a night out drinking with friends.

The dispute continued later that morning at their home at Broomfield West in Midleton over who would pick up their son Christopher from his grandparents.

The court heard Cotter had gone downstairs, loaded the gun and returned to the bedroom and fired two shots - one into the wall and one into her husband's side.

The judge said it had been suggested Mr Cotter - who had served in Lebanon - had sometimes hit his wife when he had been drinking whiskey, as he was on the night of his death.

But he said the killing was not provoked by long-standing abuse by Mr Cotter.

He said his sentence for the "heinous" and "tragic" killing was mitigated by Cotter's guilty plea, and the fact that it was her first offence and she had both a son and an infant daughter to care for.

"The events of that night would have left their scars on many people and I don't forget its effect on Gary Cotter's family and friends," he said.

Cotter made no comment as she left court.

She was found guilty of her husband's murder in 1996, but the conviction was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal leading to a retrial.

Last week she had pleaded not guilty to murder and a jury was sworn in for the trial. But the jurors were discharged when she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and it was accepted by the prosecution.