A mother of four who bludgeoned her husband to death and whose children appealed for her not to be jailed for the crime, has been given a five-year suspended sentence at the Central Criminal Court.
There were emotional scenes as Anne Burke (56) 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 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.”
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.
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.