THE FINAL weeks of a pregnancy are an exciting time for any woman as baby names are mulled over and the hospital bag is packed and repacked.
It was a different story though for Una Black yesterday when she sat in Court 1 awaiting sentence for killing her neighbour.
Black (26), who is within weeks of giving birth, stabbed John Malone (42) at the Walter Macken Flats in Mervue, Galway, after a row over a puppy.
The young woman, dressed in a white blouse and black trousers, cast a lonely figure as she sat waiting for the sentence hearing. Occasionally, she patted her stomach, almost absent-mindedly.
At one point she glanced in the direction of Mr Malone's sisters but quickly looked away again.
Their brother, from Tullamore, Co Offaly, was friends with Black. If nothing else, they had their sad stories in common. He suffered from depression and had a problem with alcohol. She had experienced sexual abuse in her childhood and had a history of psychiatric problems and alcohol abuse.
They often drank together and it was one of those late-night drinking sessions that led to his death in December 2006. He had been caring for her puppy because she could not keep it in her flat, but he grew annoyed when she failed to take the dog out for exercise.
He told her he had sold the pup for €135. They fought and he received a single stab wound to his chest at about 5.30am on December 3rd.
Black showed no reaction when Mr Justice Paul Carney said the case merited a 12-year sentence. He reduced it to nine years because she had pleaded guilty and had no previous convictions.
She began her sentence in the Dóchas Centre in Dublin last night. Like all female prisoners, she will have a single room in one of seven houses. Once her baby is born she will be allowed to keep it with her for the nursing period, an Irish Prison Service spokesman said.
When the baby is nine months old, the prison medical officer will review the case but only in special circumstances will the child be allowed to stay in the prison after its first birthday.
The spokesman said the Prison Service recognised the need for a baby to bond with its mother but prison was "a completely inappropriate environment for an infant". The main concern of the Prison Service was to remove the child before it became aware of its surroundings.
Her victim's family said they hoped she would serve every year of her sentence. "I suppose we have been offered a sentence but at the end of the day it won't bring our brother back," Josephine Malone said.
Asked to describe her brother, she paused briefly and her eyes filled up. "He was very bubbly, a good lad. He had his problems too, like us all but he was a nice chap."
Their mother Margaret had written a letter to the court, saying the family had been "destroyed" by his death.
"Mammy is okay, living from day to day I suppose," Josephine said. The family had not seen John for a few years before his death. "And we didn't think when we did see him we'd be bringing him home in a coffin."
John Malone's son Jonathan (18) stood shyly behind her. Asked if his father's death had destroyed his life, he simply said "yes".
"He didn't deserve to get what he did," he said. "He was a loving person and he'd do anything for you."
