EAMONN LILLIS, the 52-year-old advertising director convicted last Friday of the manslaughter of his wife, Celine Cawley, has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Mr Justice Barry White said that a sentence of 10 years would be appropriate, but having considered testimonials and statements to the hearing, and taking into account Lillis’s previously unblemished character, his age and the intense media coverage which made it likely he would still be of interest to the media on his release, he was jailing him for seven years.
A month was deducted to take account of the weeks he spent in custody last year pending bail.
The judge said it was clear from the verdict that the jury rejected Lillis’s contention that he had no responsibility for his wife’s death. His “only decent act” that morning was to call the emergency services and his attempt to resuscitate her.
His expression of sorrow and remorse – offered on Thursday, through his counsel – rang hollow, said the judge, and he considered it to be “self-serving”; an offer of a plea to manslaughter would have demonstrated “true contrition and remorse”.
“It is clear to me from the powerful victim impact report presented by Susanna Cawley that your behaviour has had a devastating effect on people of all ages,” the judge added. “From your father-in-law, who is some 80 years of age, down to your own daughter, who is 17 years of age.”
The judge also referred to the effect on Lillis’s teenage daughter who, in her victim impact statement, described how she had “changed from a 16-year-old girl into a hardened 17-year-old”.
Turning to the effect on Eamonn Lillis’s father-in-law, James Cawley, Mr Justice White said: “I have observed the dignified manner in which Mr Cawley has attended this court . . . I have no doubt he is a true gentleman”.
He criticised the media, saying that the constant “scrum” encountered by the Lillis and Cawley families as they entered and left the courts complex was “an affront to human dignity”.
Lillis, who showed no emotion, was then led from the court to begin his sentence at Wheatfield Prison.
Outside, Chris Cawley paid tribute to his sister.
“Celine was a dynamic, kind, successful, fun-loving and caring person. She had a beautiful energy that touched so many lives, the lives of family, friends, neighbours and colleagues”.
Then his voice breaking, he finished : “Celine, we love you.”