A Dublin woman who sued her estranged husband after he brutally attacked her on the head with a claw hammer as she slept, inflicting severe brain injuries, has been awarded €200,000 damages by the High Court.
Mr Justice Richard Johnson said Florence Daly had been attacked in "a most brutal fashion without mercy" by her husband Patrick Daly and the attack could "easily have killed her". This was "a savage assault" which Ms Daly was extremely lucky to have survived, the judge added.
The judge said the award of €200,000 damages was to compensate Ms Daly for the injuries and also "the affront of the assault".
Ms Daly (56), of Windmill Road, Crumlin, had sued her husband Patrick Daly, a plumber. He is serving a sentence in the Midlands Prison, Portlaoise for the assault and did not contest the damages action.
It was claimed Ms Daly was physically assaulted, battered and trespassed upon by her husband at the family home in Crumlin on February 3rd, 2005. It was further claimed that emotional suffering was intentionally inflicted by Mr Daly on his wife and that she sustained severe personal injury, loss, damage and inconvenience.
Mr Daly (57) pleaded guilty to assault at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last July and is serving a four-year sentence, with the final year suspended.
At the sentencing hearing, the court heard Mr Daly had attacked his wife with a claw hammer in the early hours of February 3rd after, he alleged, she laughed in his face when he asked her if she was having an affair with another man. Mr Daly later went to Crumlin Garda station and said he had killed his wife by hitting her twice on the head with a hammer.
He also told gardaí he had drunk 15 pints that day. He and his wife, the court heard, had been separated for five years and slept in separate rooms in the family home.
At the High Court yesterday, Senan Allen SC, for Ms Daly, said Mr Daly was sentenced in connection with the assault and had indicated he did not wish to contest this case.
Counsel said Ms Daly had married Mr Daly in 1971 and they had four children, now all grown up. Differences had later emerged between the couple.
Mr Daly went in to Ms Daly's bedroom in the early hours of the morning and attacked the sleeping woman with a hammer. Her skull was crushed causing serious brain damage, counsel said. She had made a remarkable recovery and went back to work nine months later.
A consultant neurosurgeon at Beaumont Hospital, David Alcott, who had treated Ms Daly, told the court she had lacerations on her skull, including over her right eye and left ear, as well as a 5cm laceration on the left side of her skull. There was a fracture to the left region of the skull and a very large bruise showed up in a brain scan. She had made a remarkable recovery considering the severity of her brain injury.
In her evidence, Ms Daly said she did not remember anything of the attack. "I was in a deep sleep. I remember before and after. I went to bed that night and he rang me on the phone. After that, I do not remember a thing," she said. She woke up in hospital but did not know members of her family. She still gets confused about their names, she added.
She said she was in pain and could hear a thumping in her head. She still hears the thumping. She said she was terrified if left in a room on her own and had to leave doors open.
Ms Daly, a restaurant worker, said she now has to work shorter days.
Mr Justice Johnson said Ms Daly had suffered a severe injury and had made "nothing short of a miraculous recovery".