A woman whose husband of 40 years poured boiling water over her as she slept and hit her several times with a claw hammer, said she thought she was going to die.
Jackie Twomey said what her husband Noel did to her in the early hours of 15 January, 2024, was "beyond cruel and evil" and has changed her life forever.
Sentencing in the case of Noel Twomey, of 18 Carbery Grove, Knocknaheeny in Cork City, has been adjourned until next month so that a psychiatric report can be prepared for the court following an application by his defence counsel today.
Twomey was due to be sentenced today after he pleaded guilty last October to three charges - one of producing a claw hammer, and two counts of assault causing serious harm to his wife, Ms Twomey, at their home - by pouring boiling water on her, and by striking her with the hammer.
In her victim impact statement read out in court today, Ms Twomey said she does not think she will ever be the same person she was before that night.
"It was beyond cruel and evil what he did to me. He poured the boiling water on me and hit me a number of times over the head with the hammer. He didn't seem to care about the damage he was doing to me", she said.
"I thought I was going to die".
She said she "should have been safe asleep in her own bed", but now fears going to bed and sleeping.
"I fear going to bed and I fear just sleeping. The nightmares return every night, the pain and memories are there all the time but worse at night. It's hard to put in words how my life has changed and the anxiety and terror that have become part of my life".
She said she hopes to get peace someday and be happy, but that possibility seems far away.
Earlier, investigating Detective Garda Michael Dolan outlined the background to the case.
He said that on 15 January 2023, in the early hours of the morning, Ms Twomey returned home after a night out with family members and went to bed.
While she slept, her husband filled a pot with water, boiled it, and armed himself with a claw-hammer from the toolbox.
Det Garda Dolan said Twomey told them he thought about what he was going to do for a while before entering the bedroom, pouring the boiling water over his wife, and striking her several times with the hammer.
He said, "he expressed surprise that she was able to jump up and leave the property".
He was arrested after he flagged down a garda patrol car nearby.
"He was visibly soaked in blood and in possession of a blood-stained hammer in a plastic bag", said Det Garda Dolan.
Prosecution Counsel Emmet Boyle JC told Judge Dermot Sheehan that a recent medical report on Ms Twomey found that while the wounds on her head had healed, there was "significant residual scars on her scalp where she received the blows".
As well as a dent on her head, there was a 3.5mm long scar with a depression in it, and second-degree burns over 11% of her body, which had healed without surgery.
The author of the medical report said it was "down to happenstance that she didn't suffer serious cranial injuries".
Defence Counsel Seamus Roche SC said he would be seeking a psychiatric report before sentencing went ahead.
Judge Sheehan granted his application and remanded Twomey in continuing custody until 26 June next for sentencing.
