AN AMATEUR FIGHTER suffering a drug-induced hallucination that he was Jesus Christ held a butcher’s knife to a terrified grandmother’s neck just five weeks before he killed his own mother, a court has heard.

Luke Donnelly (30) was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court in June to seven-and-a-half years in prison, with the final 12 months suspended, for the manslaughter of Catherine Henry (62) in Dundalk, Co Louth, on 23 May 2023.

On Friday he appeared at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court, having entered guilty pleas to two offences which happened in the months before he fatally attacked Henry.

He admitted to aggravated burglary at a house at Grange Heights, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, while armed with a kitchen knife during an aggravated burglary on 13 April 2023.

Father of one, Donnelly also pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to a man in his 20s at Delvin Road, Mullingar, on 8 August 2022.

At the time of the offences, Donnelly lived in Riverbank, Drogheda, Co Louth, and Killucan, Co Westmeath, and had only one minor prior conviction.

Donnelly sat impassively throughout the hearing and said only “thank you” as Judge Deirdre Browne adjourned the case and agreed he could appear via video link at his sentence hearing, set for 16 October next.

Garda Brian Campbell agreed with Cathal Ó Braonáin BL, instructed by the State solicitor for Westmeath, Matt Shaw, that a man in his 20s left Mullingar after attending the Fleadh Cheoil and boarded a bus.

Donnelly was present with a woman, filming passengers and threatening to burn down their houses. The court heard the victim and Donnelly got off the bus following an interaction in which the injured man told Donnelly “not to be a bollocks.”

Although they initially moved to shake hands, the bus driver witnessed Donnelly suddenly punch the victim in the jaw.

The injured man could only recall getting back onto the bus and learning from other passengers that he had been assaulted.

He required hospital treatment for a broken jaw but has since made a full recovery.

Gavin James Grogan said that in the later aggravated burglary, the victim, who is in her 50s, opened her door to see the accused and another male, while a third individual sat in a car parked facing into her driveway.

Donnelly was “frothing at the mouth” and looked like a lunatic, demanding €3,000.

He ran into the house towards her son’s bedroom, kicking and stabbing at the door with a butcher-style knife with a wooden handle and an eight-to-nine-inch blade he had retrieved from her kitchen.

The court heard he smashed the property’s front windows, seized an upstairs television belonging to the woman’s recently deceased grandchild, and threw it down the stairs to smash it, in addition to breaking up and standing on another television.

It was claimed that he was originally owed €1,900 but was now demanding more money; Donnelly held the knife to the terrified woman’s chest.

He then threatened her: “You will have it this evening or I will be back and burn your house,” before fleeing.

She stated she had never seen such hatred before and was left terrified.

In a victim impact statement, she detailed how she suffers nightmares and remains scared to be alone in her own home.

Conall McCarthy SC, defending, said his client wished to apologise publicly to both victims and that he was conveying that apology on Donnelly’s behalf.

Counsel pleaded for leniency and a concurrent sentence, saying the law did not require the judge to consider consecutive jail terms.

McCarthy outlined how Donnelly had suffered from poly-substance abuse-related hallucinations and, at the time of this offence, he thought he was Jesus Christ.

He had already started to become violent.

The court heard that at one point during his drug-induced psychosis, he drove from Dublin to Mullingar and walked on foot to Knock because of his religious prophecy.

The court heard that he had experienced violence from his mother and, during his chaotic upbringing with her, had moved around Ireland and had a brief spell in Liverpool.

He experienced homelessness in his early teens, at which point his father took him in, and he began living in the Midlands. However, then he reconnected with his mother.

Judge Browne heard that Donnelly began using drugs at an early age and later became involved in supplying them, sometimes “at the behest of his mother”.

He was prescribed antianxiety medication in his teens and had made attempts at getting employment by commencing an electrician’s apprenticeship.

Subsequently, he applied to join the Defence Forces and passed the fitness test but did not proceed to enlistment.

Donnelly had already started with cannabis in his mid-teens before moving on to ecstasy, MDMA, LSD and ketamine by the time he was 20.

Psychological and psychiatric reports were furnished to the court, along with documents outlining the extensive number of training courses he had undertaken in custody, as well as efforts to address his drug and mental health issues.

They also detailed an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.

Counsel emphasised his client’s dysfunctional background, and the domestic violence he had witnessed as a young child, and how he had transitioned to drug dealing for his mother when he was vulnerable in his late adolescence and early adult years.

McCarthy, instructed by solicitor Danny Nolan, said that his client’s erratic behaviour at the time “does not speak of the true person that he is today.”