A Co Waterford man has pleaded guilty to assaulting and causing harm to his wife during a frenzied attack at their home in October 2008.
48-year-old Fintan Murphy, of 62 Ardmore Park in Waterford, had been charged with the attempted murder of Margaret Murphy but his guilty plea to the lesser charge was accepted by the State.
Detective Gerry Whelan told the Central Criminal Court that Mr Murphy suffers from clinical depression and he wasn't taking his medication at the time.
He said Mrs Murphy also suffers from a bi-polar condition.
In a statement to gardaí, Mr Murphy said on the morning of the incident he hit his wife with a hammer because she wouldn't stop talking, 'she talks alot' he said, he just wanted to 'shut her up'.
The court heard Mr Murphy told gardaí he went and got a hammer while Mrs Murphy was in the bathroom; it was intention to kill his wife and then kill himself, he told gardaí it was 'a spur of the moment thing.'
In her statement Mrs Murphy told gardaí she had been nervous that night, imagining people outside the house and that she had been keeping her husband awake.
She said they had been married for seven years and Mr Murphy had never hit her before.
The court heard Margaret Murphy suffered multiple lacerations, fractured fingers and an injury to her skull.
She has been an inpatient at the Dept of Psychiatry in Waterford Regional Hospital since last January. Mrs Murphy still has contact with her husband.
Justice Paul Carney adjourned sentencing until Friday morning.
