A 12-year prison sentence, with the final two years suspended, has been imposed on a man who inflicted permanent life-altering brain injuries on his aunt during a brutal cocaine-fuelled attack on her at her home in April 2023.
Nyal Tumelty (30) of Coolderry, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan had pleaded guilty to an assault causing serious harm to Angela Cunningham, then aged 63, at her home in Coughvalley, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan on Saturday April 22nd, 2023.
Tumelty made no attempt to call emergency services, and Ms Cunningham had been left lying in her blood at her home for over 24 hours before being found by concerned family members.
In passing sentence at Cavan Circuit Court on Thursday, Judge John Aylmer said this had been an “appalling” assault involving a frenzied attack fuelled by alcohol and cocaine.
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He said he was also taking into consideration other counts on the indictment, which included producing a knife and a glass bottle during the incident, and the theft of the victim’s car keys and unlawful taking of her car.
Judge Aylmer said Angela Cunningham had been struck on the head with a bottle, kicked in the head multiple times, and stabbed in the face. Her head injuries were so severe that she no longer had any decision-making capacity.
He recalled that the details of her injuries given at the sentence hearing in Monaghan last month were extremely difficult to listen to, as were victim impact statements from members of the her family.
The judge told Tumelty that a particularly aggravating factor was the fact that he was on bail at the time in relation to another incident in which he had assaulted a woman causing her harm and had falsely imprisoned her at Carlingford in September 2021. He had received a sentence of six years and nine months at Dundalk Circuit Court last January for this offence.
The fact that the attack on his aunt was fuelled by alcohol and drugs meant that the defendant had little or no recollection of it, but that was no excuse.
Judge Aylmer accepted that the defendant appeared to have a history of psychosis, but this was drug-induced, and he had been abusing drugs since he was 12 years of age. The psychosis had been diagnosed when he was 18.
Another aggravating feature was that Tumelty left Ms Cunningham lying on the floor, unconscious, until she was discovered 27 hours later.
The offence was therefore very definitely on the upper end of the scale, and the court was taking the view that, before considering mitigating circumstances, it merited 15 years’ imprisonment.
Judge Aylmer added that the sentence would have to be consecutive to the sentence currently being serviced because of the fact that he was on bail at the time.
Mitigating factors included the fact that he had presented himself to gardaí, and that he was fully cooperative with the investigation even though his answers were qualified by the difficulty he had in recalling what happened.
But he had admitted attacking Ms Cunningham with a bottle and stabbing her in the face.
A probation report had noted that Tumelty was appropriately horrified and ashamed of his actions, and that he was remorseful, as again had been stated in a letter read on his behalf before sentencing.
It appeared also that the defendant was making advances in his rehabilitation and was engaging with the Probation Service while in prison. There would have to be a significant period of supervision by the service when he was released, especially in view of his very serious addiction to and abuse of drugs in the past.
Having regard to those mitigating circumstances, Judge Aylmer said he was reducing the prison sentence to 12 years, consecutive to the sentence the defendant was now serving for the Carlingford incident.
But he was suspending the final two years for a period of two years, with conditions being that Mr Tumelty was to keep the peace, be of good behaviour and abstain from alcohol and unprescribed drugs. He was also to go under the supervision of the Probation Service for that two-year period, and comply with all directions from the service in relation to his rehabilitation, both prior to and following his release.
In a letter of apology read out by his barrister, James McGowan SC, Tumelty said he was “truly sorry for what happened”. He stated: “I have ruined my aunt’s life, my family’s and my own. My mental state had been bad for years and still is. I can’t explain in words what was going wrong at the time.”
Tumelty in his letter said he hated drugs and what they did to people’s minds, adding: “I hate myself for doing this.”
In a statement read to the media following the sentence, however, Ms Cunningham’s daughter Louise said on behalf of the family that they did not feel that justice had been served. “The length of the sentence is heartbreaking and it doesn’t feel like justice has been served. The pain and disappointment is especially difficult in knowing that when Niall attacked our mother he was on bail for attacking and falsely imprisoning a pregnant woman.
Having described her mother as an independent and quiet, honest woman, Louise said, “Unfortunately, with her vulnerability, she was attacked out of pure evil.”
“Her current condition is very grim. She requires 24/7 care, she has no mobility, she can’t process information, she doesn’t understand and she can’t communicate.” Stating that Angela was bedbound or in a wheelchair at all times, Louise said it was “very heartbreaking”.
The extent of the shock, trauma and devastation caused by the incident was highlighted during an earlier sentencing hearing as the victim’s loved ones recalled how the assault had changed their lives forever and left Angela — their mother, grandmother and sister — with “no quality of life” and permanently institutionalised.
Judge Aylmer had been told how Ms Cunningham, now 65 years old, had spent many months in intensive care, and how she was in various hospitals up until about a year ago when she was taken to a residential facility. It is expected that she will remain there, and it was also confirmed that her condition has been deteriorating over the past year.
In evidence given by Detective Inspector Adrian Durcan, it was revealed that Nyal Tumelty had been drinking in Dundalk from about 12 noon on the Saturday of the assault on his aunt, and that he was using cocaine as well.
He went to Angela Cunningham’s home in Cloughvalley at about 5.15pm that evening. Following the violent assault, her car was taken from the home and later found abandoned in a laneway near Mr Tumelty’s family home at Coolderry, Inniskeen.
Angela Cunningham was found at 8.25pm the next day, Sunday April 23rd 2023 while motionless on the floor of her kitchen and covered in blood, and was taken by ambulance to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
