A woman who caused the death of her partner by pushing him to the ground, causing him to sustain serious head injuries from which he did not recover, has been jailed for 2 years and 9 months.
There were loud sobs and strong words from the family of the late Mr. Ryan as the sentence was passed this afternoon. Members of Ryan’s family called the sentence “Nothing but a joke”, that it was “bullshit”, and “disgraceful”.
Case background
Czech national Olesja Hertova (49), of Hastings Lawn, Balbriggan, Dublin appeared before the Circuit Criminal Court yesterday for trial after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of James ‘Shay’ Ryan on August 11th, 2024, at the couple’s then home.
Hertova shed tears for much of the trial as details of the events of the night in question were presented to Judge Martin Nolan.
Detective Sergeant Eoin McDonnell told the court that the incident, which lasted only seconds, was captured on the CCTV cam of a neighbour’s house, and was supplied to Gardaí some days after Mr. Ryan, who was 69 yrs old at the time, sustained his ultimately fatal injuries.
The court heard that the pair were in a relationship since 2008, and that the accused has been in Ireland since circa 2004.
They share a teenage daughter, Ellie, who witnessed the incident, and on whose behalf a victim impact statement was read before the court.
The late James ‘Shey’ Ryan.
On the night of the fatal incident, the court heard that Ryan had bought a small bottle of vodka for Hertova who was having a BBQ at home with the couple’s daughter while he spent some of the evening at a pub.
Hertova later went to buy more vodka while Ryan went to the Central Bar at around 10:40pm, before going to a takeaway, and arriving home at approximately 1:30 am that morning.
In a subsequent Garda interview the teenage daughter said that when her father came home her parents got into an argument and it was “clear to her that they were unhappy”.
She said that her father seemed displeased with her mother being drunk, and that when such arguments took place he would “usually walk away” or say he would go and stay at the home of another daughter from a previous relationship, Karen Ryan.
On the night in question, Mr. Ryan exited the front door of the house and was immediately followed by Hertova who pushed him hard causing him to fall to the ground.
She then turned away to walk back to the house, before putting his glasses back on his face and attempting to pull him back towards the house, the court heard.
Ellie went outside to see what had happened, before calling her father’s other daughter, Karen, and then an ambulance.
The court heard that a number of neighbours gathered around and that Mr. Ryan “regained some consciousness” after the fall, but there was “a lot of blood” on the ground.
When the ambulance team arrived they were told that he had fallen before Hertova and the teen girl cleaned up the blood with a cleaning agent and a brush.
Mr. Ryan arrived at Beaumont Hospital at 3am and was bleeding from his forehead and right ear with bruising also on his forehead.
He suffered a shallow subdural hemorrhage and his level of consciousness went from 11/15 to 7/15, the court heard.
During a procedure to relieve pressure from inside his head his pupils dilated and it was determined that nothing more that could be done for him. He passed away at 5:30pm on the evening of 11th of August.
A report by Dr. Sally Ann Collice determined that although Mr. Ryan suffered from Parkinson’s and COPD, these conditions did not cause his death, and that he died from “complicated injuries” due to “blunt force” from the fall.
When Gardaí obtained CCTV footage from the neighbouring house a search of the home was conducted which led to the arrest of Hertova.
She claimed that when Mr. Ryan had gone out the door, she had tried to stop him from driving off after he had been drinking, however it emerged that the car parked outside belonged to a friend of his and he would sometimes go and sit in it to get some peace away from her “following a dispute”.
She was originally charged with assault causing serious harm, however this was amended to a charge of manslaughter, with the court hearing that Hertova indicated a guilty plea when she became aware of the CCTV evidence.
Her defending counsel said that his client had stayed with Mr. Ryan until emergency services arrived, however members of his family accused her of “shedding crocodile tears” in the hospital.
“When my dad was lying on his back and she was hugging him, my dad was having a bit of a laugh and telling her to leave him alone.” the teenage daughter said.
Victim Impact Statements
Eliska ‘Ellie’ Ryan who witnessed the fatal assault said her “heart is destroyed” since the loss of her dad who “made me feel safe” in a “home filled with fear” and “shouting”.
The girl said she had “learned to read every sign to predict what would come next” in that home.
She said she felt that she had to protect her dad who in turn would do “everything to make me feel safe” including “sleeping in the car on cold nights” to get away from Hertova.
Ellie said her dad was “generous and always ready to help” and that “when everything around me felt cold and dangerous he was the one place I could go,”
She said she had been “haunted” by the fear of “losing him” growing up.
When her mother drank she would “sometimes turn into someone I didn’t recognise”, and on the night of the assault in a “split second” she “ran towards him and pushed him”.
He “couldn’t survive” his injuries which had left him “confused , broken and scared”.
Calling her by name as he lay on the ground, he said, “I just want to go home”.
This “replays in my head every single day,” she said.
Ellie said she feels she has “failed in the one thing that mattered the most to me, protecting him.” and that she wonders, “What if I had done something different?”
The now 16-year-old said her “world feels cold and hollow” because her dad “isn’t here anymore”.
She said her pain was confounded by knowing that the person who had caused all this was her own mother.
“Part of me still loves her,” she said, adding that “I lost both” and is “now grieving two people at once”.
She described how she feels “people staring” and “the rumours” starting.
Ellie lamented that her dad will not be there for her graduation, her wedding, or to meet his grandchildren.
“Everything we were supposed to have has been taken away too,” she said.
She described watching the machines in the hospital “being turned off” as her dad lay “bleeding , broken, and slipping away.”
In a portion directed at the judge, she wrote, “Please dont see this as just a case.”
She said she would “never forget the look” of “grief and confusion” in her dad’s eyes and the feeling of being “terrified and powerless”.
Karen Ryan, a daughter of the deceased man from a previous relationship described the “immense devastation” to herself and sisters of the loss of a father who was a “gentlemen”.
“I don’t know how to exist without him,” she said, adding that he had “guided me all my life” and that the “very next day” after he died, she became the carer to her teenage step sister who was on a “harrowing journey”.
Describing how the girl, who was present in court, has struggled with the loss of her father, and her mother by way of circumstances, she said, “This was not just a teenager in need of care” but a “child broken”.
She said that there was no adequate help for the “beautiful child” who is “damaged” and “traumatised”.
“Nobody in this would know what I am going through,” she said.
“My heart breaks daily worrying constantly,” she said, describing the struggle to care for her own children, one of whom has special needs, as well as her much younger step sister who she said the whole Ryan family deeply loves.
She said that nobody sees the “ripple effect” when a loved one is “violently” taken and that the accused had “cried over his body” while concealing what she had done.
Ms. Ryan added that she “never imagined someone we trusted would take my father’s life.”
The siblings of the deceased, Una, Deirdre, and Jackie said that he had been a brother who had shown them unwavering love” and was the “cornerstone of family”
Mr. Ryan was “Always ready to lend a helping hand no matter the cost,”.
They said his loss “shattered our world” causing “shock and disbelief” and that they will “never hear his laughter again” since his life was “stolen” by the defendant.
Another daughter of the victim said that when she visited him at the hospital “he did not recognise me” and was “helpless” and in a “dire state”.
That memory will “forever haunt me”, she said, adding that she “couldn’t offer a final embrace”.
She said that Hertova had “sat in the ICU shedding crocodile tears.”
Sentence
Prosecuting counsel told the court that the DPP is of the view that the offending falls into the “medium culpability range” as a result of an “unlawful act not normally expected to result in death,” noting that the accused had initially “misrepresented what had happened”, before recommending a headline sentence of 4 to 10 years.
Hertova’s defending counsel objected to this saying that the offence belongs at the “higher end of lower range” and that no violence such as stabbing or kicks were involved and that his client had committed the “act of a push, one push, delivered in seconds”.
Judge Nolan said this was a “very forceful push” which anyone on the receiving end would “always fall”.
“If people fall there is a possibility, if people thought about it, they can hit their head,” he said.
The DPP mentioned that instances of “domestic violence” could be considered as aggravating factors in the sentencing of the accused.
Judge Nolan set a headline sentence of 5 years for the “unlawful killing” of Mr. Ryan saying that the court was in no doubt that it was not Hertova’s intention to kill him. This was reduced to an actual sentence of 2 years and 9 months with mitigation.
He took into account that she was “suitable remorseful”, and that it is “unlikely she will reoffend” due to her “blameless record”.
Judge Nolan remarked that the accused had “probably temporarily destroyed her relationship with her daughter.”
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