Laois woman gets suspended sentence for manslaughter of husband
A mother-of-four who bludgeoned her husband to death has been given a five-year suspended sentence at the Central Criminal Court.
There were emotional scenes as 56-year-old Anne Burke was given a non-custodial sentence for the manslaughter of her husband, Patrick Burke, at their family home in Ballybrittas, Co Laois in August 2007.
Her children, who had appealed for her not to be jailed for the crime and were present in court, broke down and wept silently as Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said he was satisfied that Mrs Burke was suffering from a serious mental condition at the time, partly caused by her domestic circumstances.
Mr Justice McCarthy said there were fears she could attempt suicide and that “this showed the depth of punishment in the mind of the accused herself”.
He said she would have to undergo a regime of treatment and comply with the terms of her psychiatrist and any one in her medical and therapeutic assistance.
He also said he had given particular consideration to her children's victim impact statements and the fact that they “were at one in saying they would not like their mother to suffer a custodial sentence. This is of significance. Their father was responsible for a litany of abuse”.
In her statement, Linda Burke (aged 22) said she understood why her mother had taken her father's life.
She said her earliest memory was standing at the top of the stairs in her pyjamas, watching her father hold a shotgun to her mother's head and threatening to “blow her head off”.
She said her mother is living in a prison of her own making every day.
“But I hope it will not be a prison made of bricks as this would break my heart...I love her unconditionally,” she said.
Her older sister, Natasha, said her mother had “served a lifetime since the day she was married” and she too hoped she would not be sent to jail.
During the trial, the court had heard that Anne and Patrick's Burke 32 year marriage was marred by frequent and violent rows, fuelled by excessive drinking.
She described her marriage as a “litany of abuse” saying her husband “murdered” her on their wedding night, and the physical and mental abuse continued until his death.
She told gardaí that she only started drinking so she could stand up to her husband who would start fights when he was drunk.
She had tried to take her own life a year before she killed the 55-year-old, and again just six days before his death.
In her interviews with gardaí, she said she had started drinking at 10am on the day in question and just remembered picking up a hammer and hitting her husband over the head with it as he lay asleep in bed.
Mr Burke sustained 23 blows to the head in total. Afterwards she covered his body with a duvet and tried to cut her wrists.
She pleaded not guilty to his murder and was acquitted of the charge by a jury at the Central Criminal Court last December on grounds of diminished responsibility. They found her guilty of manslaughter.
Speaking after the sentencing, the deceased's brother Tom Burke said he wished to make clear that he and his sisters were “not satisfied with the outcome of the trial”.
“He is dead. Not satisfied with that, a further assassination of his character and a tissue of lies was deemed necessary to acquit his killer of murder.”
In his victim impact statement, he had also said that Patrick Burke was not the monster portrayed in the trial and had worked hard as a groundsman to fend for his family.
But Mr Justice McCarthy noted that there had been a 12-year break in the brother's relationship; “while I do not disregard what (he) believes completely, I feel (his) perception was wrong as to what happened in the home”.
He said the deceased was responsible for frequent abuse and sometimes shocking incidents in the home.
Mrs Burke's children embraced her as the sentencing concluded.
