A woman whose husband has been jailed for eight years for pouring boiling water over her, and hitting her repeatedly on the head with a claw hammer as she lay asleep, has spoken of how she was “terrified of him” for 40 years.
Jackie Twomey said she was happy with the length of the sentence imposed on her husband Noel Twomey after the attack in the bedroom of their home in Carbery Grove, Knocknaheeny in Cork on January 15th 2024.
“I’m happy. I was expecting eight years,” said Jackie Twomey as she spoke outside Cork Circuit Criminal Court where Judge Dermot Sheehan handed down a nine year sentence with 12 months suspended.
“I just hope I never have to see the man’s face ever in my life again,” she said before revealing she had never seen the letter of apology that was read out in court on her husband’s behalf in which he expressed remorse and hoped one day he would be reunited with his family.
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“He wants to be with his family. No way, not a hope in hell, never,” said Jackie Twomey as she described her husband as “narcissistic and a psychopath” and said she had been “walking on eggshells” during the 40 years they spent together as a married couple.
She described how he would be watching the news and when a “big case” came on, he would say “I wonder would I get away with it?” She said: “This was before he attacked me; he’d been thinking about it for years.”
She told of how she managed to push past Twomey as he rained blows from the hammer on top of her head and got to the porch, but she had to return to get her son out of the house which was when Twomey left the building, and she was able to raise the alarm.
“I’m still in a lot of pain, the burns are healed up but I can’t lie on the left side of my face because it’s very sensitive still, and I still have dents in my head... I am terrified of him. I’ve always been terrified of him; 40 years terrified of him but I stayed with him because I had children. I had nowhere else to go.”
Det Garda Mick Dolan previously told the court that Jackie Twomey had been out socialising with family members, returned home and went to bed. Noel Twomey was at home that night and awake when his wife returned, and he watched her on CCTV as she approached the house.
He said Noel Twomey made the conscious decision to boil a pot of water on the stove and retrieve a claw hammer from a toolbox after she had gone to bed. “He proceeded to pour the boiling water on his wife before striking her over the head with the hammer a number of times,” said Dolan.
Defence counsel Seamus Roche had requested a psychiatric report on the defendant on the last occasion but was unable to obtain one, so he referred to an earlier report which suggested his client was subject to fits and seizures which may have led to him behaving as he did.
“His behaviour on the night was out of character and would suggest some psychological issue, and that must have informed his mental wellbeing on the night because what he did is not the action of a rational person,” said Roche, who read out the letter of apology from Noel Twomey.
The court had previously heard that Jackie Twomey had suffered burns to her body and injuries to her head and spent six days in hospital. Dolan said that while her physically injuries had largely healed, she remained hugely traumatised by what happened.
Jackie Twomey had previously told the court: “I thought I was going to die. I remember the pain, and screaming.”
Prosecution barrister Katherine McGillicuddy said the DPP’s view was that the assaults merited a sentence of between 10 and 15 years, but Roche said he believed it merited a five to 10 years term.
The judge said he believed the offences merited a headline sentence of 12 years, given aggravating factors such as the premeditated nature of the assault, where Twomey boiled water and got a hammer, the fact the victim was his wife, which implied a level of trust, and that it happened in their home.
However, there were also mitigating factors including Noel Twomey’s lack of any relevant previous convictions and the fact that he soon afterwards presented at his local Garda station, made admissions and entered a guilty plea, which spared his wife the added trauma of a trial.
He said in those circumstances he would reduce the sentence from 12 to nine years and suspended the final year on condition Noel Twomey have no contact directly or indirectly with his wife for 12 years. He backdated the sentence to January 15th, 2024, when Twomey went into custody.
- The Women’s Aid 24-hour national freephone helpline is available at 1800 341 900
