A Co Galway woman who killed her abusive partner has been given a four-year suspended sentence at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. In March 1999 a jury found Kathleen Bell (37), of Camilaun Park, Newcastle, not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of her brother-in-law and partner, Mr Patrick Sammon (42), at her house in Camilaun Park on June 20th, 1997.
Ms Justice McGuinness, now a Supreme Court judge, suspended the four-year sentence on condition that Kathleen Bell continued to attend counselling with Dr Helen Grealy, a private practitioner. Kathleen Bell also agreed to the condition that she continue to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for the duration of the sentence.
During the trial Bell admitted that she stabbed Mr Sammon with a knife she used to peel potatoes two nights after she had learnt that her sister, Mary, had died of a drug and drink overdose in London.
Supt Anthony Finnerty told the court that Bell had been hospitalised 51 times between the beginning of her relationship with Mr Sammon and the night she killed him.