A woman convicted of causing the death of a Dublin-born priest, who died 11 months after being attacked and beaten with a concrete block at his church in Florida, has been sentenced to 40 years in jail.
Father Oliver Barrett died in Dublin in January last year from injuries he sustained in the brutal beating he received at St Anne's Church in Brownsville, a suburb of Pensacola.
Delta Sue Allen (34) was charged with murder, robbery and aggravated battery after the attack in January 2001 which left Father Barrett unable to recognise his friends. She avoided a full trial under a plea bargain and was given a 40-year sentence, the maximum in Pensacola, after an earlier hearing found her mentally competent.
Allen went to the church in search of money, telling the 81-year-old priest that she was collecting for a sick child. When he refused, she beat him about the head with a block of cement.
Father Barrett managed to drag himself to a caravan behind the church, where he was found by parishioners arriving for Mass. He never recovered fully from his injuries and died in the Holy Ghost Missionary College in Dublin early last year.
"I'm very sorry about Father Barrett," Allen told the Pensacola court after she was sentenced. "I just hope the members of the church can forgive me. I've asked God for forgiveness already."
Allen had been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder, a form of schizophrenia, but was declared fit to stand trial by a team of psychologists.
Father Barrett was a popular figure in his parish, where he had ministered for 18 years. Mgr Raymond Mullins, a friend who accompanied him back to Ireland, said: "He never recovered from the attack and I don't think he ever knew what happened to him."