The son of veteran criminal Eamon Kelly, who was shot dead more than a decade ago, attempted to murder his former wife’s friend because he blamed her for the break-up of his marriage, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Lawyers for Matthias Kelly (42) told the court their client suffered a brain injury in 2016 following a car crash and a further head injury in a fall down stairs two days before he broke into Fiona Timmermans’s home and tried to stab her to death.
Kelly’s father, Eamon Kelly, was shot dead outside his home on Furry Park Road, Killester, Dublin, on December 4th, 2012.
Det Garda Alan Roche said the victim was a friend of the defendant’s former wife. On September 1st, 2024, Kelly sent a text to Ms Timmermans saying: “I’m going to cut your throat, you’re dead.”
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On September 6th he threw a brick through the window of his ex-wife’s home. The following day he entered Ms Timmermans’s home through an open back door, took a knife from her kitchen and went to her bedroom. Ms Timmermans told gardaí she awoke to see Kelly standing over her before he started stabbing at her neck and head “like a madman”, and shouting: “You’re dead, you’re dead.”
She fought back and kicked him in the groin before he “jumped on her head five times”, and left the house, the garda said.
She was treated at Beaumont Hospital for stab wounds to her forehead, face and neck but was discharged on the same day. A doctor’s report said she would make a recovery from her physical injuries within weeks but may be left with permanent, visible scars.
After the assault, Kelly sent a text to a friend, saying: “I’d say I will be lifted shortly – I’m after butchering that tramp, Fifi.” When gardaí arrested and questioned him, Kelly said Ms Timmermans had “ruined my family’s life”.
He said he would still be with his wife if it were not for Ms Timmermans but said he regretted attacking her and his actions were “bang out of order” and “disgusting”. He accepted he had previously threatened Ms Timmermans but added: “I never really planned on doing it. I never thought I would actually go through with it.”
Defence senior counsel James Dwyer said solicitors had tried to secure a neuropsychologist to provide a report on how the brain injuries had affected their client’s behaviour, but none was willing to work for the rate of pay proposed by the legal aid services.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott asked the Minister for Justice to address the issue when the court convenes on Wednesday for other cases where legal aid payment issues have arisen. The judge adjourned finalisation of Kelly’s sentence until February 16th to allow further time for the defence to find a neuropsychologist.
In a letter of apology read out by Mr Dwyer, Kelly told Ms Timmermans: “I am deeply sorry for what I have done to you. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. It was a disgusting, evil act.” He said he was not in his right frame of mind having suffered a brain injury in 2016 and having fallen down the stairs of his sister’s home two days before the assault.
Mr Dwyer said the attack was “horrific and brutal”, but he asked the court to consider his client’s guilty plea, absence of previous convictions for violent offences, his neurological difficulties, remorse, efforts at rehabilitation and personal circumstances.
Mr Dwyer said Kelly is an enhanced prisoner in Cloverhill Prison where he has engaged with education and is described by the governor and his teachers as polite and mannerly.
Ms Timmermans was not in court for today’s hearing but wrote a statement saying the assault changed her life in ways she could not have imagined. She said the scars on her face remind her of the trauma. She has trouble sleeping and fears being alone in her home.
Kelly, of no fixed abode in Coolock in Dublin, pleaded guilty last year to the attempted murder of Ms Timmermans at Newbury Lawns, Clonshaugh, in Dublin, on September 7th, 2024. He also pleaded guilty to entering her home as a trespasser intending to murder her and producing a kitchen knife with a serrated blade in the course of a dispute on the same occasion.
Kelly admitted making a threat to kill Ms Timmermans at an unknown location within the State on September 1st, 2024, intending her to believe it would be carried out. He pleaded guilty to damaging the sittingroom window and front bedroom window of his ex-wife, intending such property damage or being reckless as to whether such property would be damaged at Millbrook Avenue, Coolock, in Dublin, on September 6th, 2024.
