A young mother remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital in Cork following a Christmas Eve attack by her former partner, who later took his own life by driving into the river Lee.
Ms Anne Marie Sloane (31), a mother of two, underwent extensive surgery for head wounds and fractures at Cork University Hospital on Christmas Day after she was found barely alive in a garage at Ballyleary, Cobh, Co Cork. She remains in intensive care.
Ms Sloane, a nurse, had called to the home of her estranged partner with a Christmas present for their two-year-old son. The parents of the toddler had split up some 10 weeks previously and the child was staying with his father, Mr Seán O'Riordan, at his family home.
A row broke out between the couple shortly before 8 p.m., when the Cork man violently assaulted his former girlfriend.
Nearly three hours later Ms Sloane's badly beaten body was discovered by Ms Olive O'Riordan, who rang the emergency services.
The O'Riordan family later learned that the body of their son had been recovered from the Lee. It is believed Mr O'Riordan fled the garage thinking he had murdered the young mother and drove her car to Cork city and into the river near Parc Uí Chaoimh. Witnesses alerted gardaí, who rushed to the scene with divers from the Irish Naval Service and the Cork City Fire Brigade.
The car and Mr O'Riordan's body were pulled from the water at around 11.30 p.m., and a post-mortem was carried out yesterday by the Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster.
Yesterday the Mayor of Cobh, Mr Terry Anderson, described the tragedy as the worst kind to hit the east Cork town.
"It's awful that such a thing could happen, especially at Christmas. You wouldn't wish it on any family," he said.