The former wife of Pearse McAuley has described the brutal and prolonged attack she was subjected to by the prominent republican who was jailed over the assault earlier this week.
Pauline Tully McAuley recalled fearing that she was going to die and her ex-husband bringing their two young boys into the kitchen of her home to say goodbye to her on Christmas eve last.
Ms Tully McAuley said that on the day she had been in touch with her ex-husband about coming to see their two boys for Christmas but had been warned by a friend of his that McAuley had started drinking again after undergoing addiction treatment earlier in the year.
She said she had told the children their dad, who served time in prison for killing Detective Jerry McCabe in 1996, would not be coming as he was ill but then received a text from him to see his recent drinking had been “a blip”. She called him and he insisted he was fine.
Ms Tully McAuley told Marian Finucane on RTÉ Radio 1 that there was a knock on the door some time later and it was McAuley, who she said looked very rough and upset.
As she and their children stood near the door, McAuley accused her of seeing another man, which both she and the children denied was the case, and then raised his fist and punched her in the face as the boys looked on.
Steak knife
She recalled McAuley taking a steak knife out of his pocket, which she initially feared might have been gun, before telling the children to go upstairs and dragging her into the kitchen. Ms McAuley said she the sense of fear reminded her of a previous incident on Valentine’s Day when McAuley hit and tried to strangle her while they were staying in a hotel.
McAuley held her in the kitchen from 11am to 2.30pm on Christmas Eve last and stabbed her 13 times while there. She said it was not a frenzy of wounds being inflicted quickly but rather a prolonged ordeal.
Ms Tully McAuley recalled telling herself not to panic and praying to her late parents to protect her boys and help her get through it.
“I knew he had overstepped the mark, he had hit me in the eye,” she said. “There was no way to talk him down. I thought it was the end for me and I’m not going to survive this time.”
She said he initially stabbed her in the chest and recalled the sound of air coming out of the wound.
Her ex-husband made her sit on the floor, in case somebody passing the house might see her, and kicked and punched her as well as stabbing her multiple times after assessing where might be the best place to make the incision. She tried to fight him off and sustained a serious gash to her hand.
‘In control’
She recalled McAuley saying “I’m in control here” as the attack unfolded.
Ms Tully McAuley said her ex-husband had “brought the boys down to say goodbye to me”. She said one of the children (seven) attempted to contact gardai but didn’t know what to do after calling 999 and then put the phone down.
She said McAuley kept asking who she was seeing and that she repeatedly denied there was anyone, before deciding that making up a name might help her situation as he was so insistent.
She said McAuley had taken a bottle of liqueur from the fridge and was drinking it and appeared to relax after she gave him a name.
Ms Tully McAuley said her ex-husband thought she was going to die and intended to kill himself after she did, but not before calling someone to help the children.
She said she was lying in the floor in a pool of her blood and that McAuley lay down next to her, having earlier said he’d carry her to a bedroom which she feared would harder to escape from.
He then fell asleep and, despite being weak from blood loss, she began to crawl from the scene towards the back door of the house as quietly as she could to seek help.
Ms Tully McAuley recalled reaching the road and a neighbour approaching in a car. The neighbour did not recognise her at first because of her injuries but then agreed to go and get help.
She locked herself in McAuley’s car on the road outside the house and said her ex-husband soon woke up and came out looking for her.
He tried and failed to get into the car and then picked up a big rock. Her brother and nephews then arrived on the scene and Ms Tully McAuley recalled McAuley being struck and her being rescued from the ordeal.
McAuley was this week sentenced to 12 years in jail with four suspended over the incident. Sinn Féin TD Mary Lou McDonald said on Friday that she thought the sentence was very light. Ms Tully McAuley is a former Sinn Féin councillor and the party made many efforts to secure the release of McAuley and others convicted of killing Det McCabe.
