A man has been jailed for three and a half years for attempting to suffocate the elderly mother of his partner.
Peter Keaney, who has an address at Hillside Close, Monksland, Athlone, Co Roscommon attacked the 85-year-old woman in the Sonas nursing home Ballymahon Road, Athlone last April.
Keaney began to punch the old woman repeatedly in the face, after she had attempted to greet him with a hug, and proceeded to push her into a chair and hold a pillow to her face.
He pleaded guilty to two counts under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act for assault causing harm, and attempting to suffocate the victim by holding a pillow to her face.
The court heard Keaney, who is a former carer and theatre worker told the woman “you will live to regret it” before holding the pillow over her face and that he began kicking her in the head when she slipped from the chair onto the ground.
Staff heard screaming and Keaney telling the old woman to die, “ “Die bitch, die; die you fucking bitch. Get away from me. I wish you were dead.” he said.
When Gardaí arrived on the scene he admitted that he did try to kill her.
The victim required nine stitches in her head and suffered bruising on her back where she was knelt on while trying to escape from the pillow being held over her face.
The court heard that the attack was motivated by a mistaken belief Keaney held that the woman had facilitated abuse against his partner, although the elderly woman and her late husband had had a good relationship with him for years.
The court heard that his partner had never disclosed any such information to him and was at a loss as to where he would have got the idea.
Sentencing Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Court said that Keaney, who says he was never violent up until the day of the assault, acted “like a man possessed”.
Describing the assault as an “awful, awful” act he said that could not be rationalised.
Judge Johnson praised the nursing home staff for their quick intervention when they became aware of the assault.
He said that he hoped the victim could put what had happened behind her and said that Keaney’s partner was stuck between a rock and a hard place after what had happened, but that the family seemed like decent people who were deeply shocked by what had taken place.
He sentenced Keaney to four and a half years in prison, suspending one year.