A WOMAN jumped through a kitchen window after a man attacked her with an axe and a broom handle, Donegal Circuit Court heard yesterday
Dorothy Kelly (65) was attacked by 61-year-old Neil Crumlish in the house which they shared in the village of Mountcharles, Co Donegal.
Ms Kelly suffered injuries that included a fractured finger, a head wound that required stitches and she spent six days in hospital.
Gardaí were alerted to her plight by a taxi driver who saw her in the village, clearly distressed, Judge Raymond Fullam was told.
Crumlish pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Ms Kelly last December 16th at the home they shared at Upper End, Mountcharles.
Defence counsel Desmond Murphy said Crumlish was "a habitual drunkard" and spent every day drinking with a neighbour. Because of his "near-permanent state of drunkenness" he didn't realise the seriousness of his situation and had failed to co-operate with the Probation Service.
Judge Fullam said the court must show its "abhorrence" of a "savage, brutal attack on a defenceless woman".
He sentenced Crumlish to 18 months in prison with nine months of it suspended.
Garda James Connolly told of seeing Ms Kelly wearing only a long jumper shortly before 11pm on a Sunday night after he was alerted by the taxi driver. She had a cut on the back of her head and there was a lot of blood on the jumper.
She said she was not going back to Crumlish, who had hit her with a hatchet. The hatchet, with an 18-inch long handle, was produced in court.
Garda Connolly said he took Ms Kelly her to her son's house in the village and an ambulance was called to take her to Letterkenny General Hospital.
The court heard two statements from Crumlish in which he admitted assaulting Ms Kelly first with a broom and then with the hatchet.
He said a row started when he told her he was planning to go to Inishowen and Ms Kelly started crying and pleaded with him not to leave her alone in the house. "I got angry with her," Crumlish said.
His statement said he hit her with "a wee blow" on the head with the back of the hatchet. When she started bleeding he tried to stem the blood but she wouldn't let him.
"She then opened the kitchen window and jumped out. I called her to come back but she wouldn't."
The court heard Crumlish had since apologised to Ms Kelly although they were no longer together.