US court jails woman for beating priest to death

A WOMAN who beat an Irish priest to death with a concrete block has been jailed for 40 years in Florida.

Delta Sue Allen, 34, was given the maximum term by a Pensacola judge following a plea bargain reached last November.

She had faced murder, robbery and battery charges for her role in the death of Fr Oliver Barrett, 81, originally from Kinsale, Co Cork.

Fr Barrett died at Holy Ghost Missionary College in Dublin in February 2001, 11 months after the attack.

He had served as pastor at St Anne’s Catholic Church in Brownsville, Florida, for 17 years. The parish was dissolved after his death.

“I’m very sorry about Fr Barrett,” Allen said. “I just hope the members of the church can forgive me. I’ve asked God for forgiveness already.”

She allegedly went to the church and lied about needing money to pay for a child’s medical treatments.

Fr Barrett had given Allen money two days prior to the murder after she told him her six-year-old daughter needed a kidney transplant.

Police said there is no child and that Allen had been scamming churches in the area.

When Allen returned looking for more money, she beat Barrett with a cement block, kicked him with work boots and took some money.

“I’m glad she got time and I’m glad she acknowledges her guilt,” said Ernest Herring, who found Barrett after the beating. “But if (Fr Barrett) had been here, he’d have forgiven her because he was such a loving man.”

Allen had faced charges of attempted first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery of an elderly person causing great harm.

Allen’s defence was to plead insanity at the time of the beating, citing a bipolar disorder involving periods of manic depression and elements of schizophrenia.

Chief Circuit Judge John Kuder accepted a plea agreement whereby the prosecution sought a sentence of no more than 40 years. Allen could have faced the death penalty.

Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer said he made the decision to offer the plea deal in part because Fr Barrett’s family supported the notion.

Friends said the priest had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease before the attack and that afterwards it seemed to accelerate.