LAST UPDATE | 4 Mar

THREE WOMEN WEPT in Limerick Circuit Criminal Court as they were jailed for knifing a grandmother in the face and beating her with sticks.

Christina McCarthy nee Harty (61) was left with permanent facial scarring after being set upon by the group of women in the bedroom of her home, at Rathkeale, Co Limerick, on 10 December 2019.

Christina McCarthy eventually escaped the women’s clutches by crawling underneath her bed.

“I can still see their faces, and hear myself roaring for mercy to let me go, I don’t know how I survived it. They wanted me dead,” said Ms McCarthy.

The mob of women included mother and daughter, Nora “Josie” Harty, (58), and Mary Ellen Daly, (35), both of Lisheen Park, Patrickswell, who were each jailed for three and half years with the final year suspended, after they pleaded guilty to assaulting Ms McCarthy causing her harm while being in possession of knives.

The court heard that Nora Harty is a first cousin of the victim.

Christina Casey, (48), of St Aidan’s Close, Brookfield, Tallaght, Dublin, who pleaded guilty to violent disorder while in possession of a baseball bat, was jailed for 28 months with the final ten months suspended.

Rita Johnson, (51), of St Ita’s Street, St Mary’s Park, Limerick City, who pleaded guilty to trespassing at the victim’s home, agreed to complete 120 hours community service in lieu of a six-month jail sentence.

Outlining the facts, prosecuting barrister, Lily Buckley, instructed by state solicitor for Co Limerick, Brendan Gill, said that Ms McCarthy and her daughter were involved in an altercation with Mary Ellen Daly and another woman outside a shopping centre a day before the attack and there was an earlier alleged incident on board a “party bus”.

Buckley said that, on the day of the attack, Ms McCarthy was asleep in her bed when she “opened her eyes” and she saw a number of women “coming for her”, including Daly, Harty and Casey.

Buckley said Harty told Ms McCarthy: “We’re not letting you go, we’re cutting you up, we’re killing you.”

The barrister said Daly also told the victim: “I’m cutting you up. I’m killing you.”

Ms McCarthy told gardaí she thought she was going to die as Harty and Daly slashed her face.

Buckley said: “She (Ms McCarthy) said she remembers them slashing at her face and she said Daly caught her by the hair like a rag doll.”

Ms McCarthy also suffered slash wounds to her hands as she held them up “protect herself”.

Buckley said other women were hitting the victim with sticks but that Ms McCarthy told gardaí this was a bit of a “blur” in her memory: “She said she crawled under the bed to save herself.”

The four defendants were observed by an independent witness leaving Ms McCarthy’s home, who also told gardaí they saw twenty people, angry and screaming, running from the victim’s home.

Ms McCarthy was treated at University Hospital Limerick for slash wounds to her face, a thumb and an index finger, and she also underwent a number of surgeries.

In her victim impact statement, Ms McCarthy said: “My face and hands were destroyed, affecting how I look, I will never be the same in my face, and the pain never goes away from my hand.”

Ms McCarthy said she continues to suffer with anxiety, panic attacks and is constantly looking over her shoulder “waiting to be attacked again”.

Harty, Daly, Casey and Johnson, all denied being at Ms McCarthy’s home on the day of the attack.

Photos of Ms McCarthy’s injuries, and damage to a broken window and door at her home, and blood and hair at the scene, were shown to the court.

Defence barristers Liam Carroll BL, for Harty; and Grace Hogan BL, for Daly; and Joseph McMahon BL, for Casey; and Johanna O’Connor BL, for Rita Johnson, told the court their clients were remorseful and apologetic and provided positive reports in respect of the accused women, which were prepared by the Probation Service and Tipperary Rural Travellers Project.

The four barristers asked sentencing judge, Fiona O’Sullivan, to impose community service orders on all four accursed in lieu of custodial sentences.

Judge O’Sullivan described the attack on Ms McCarthy as a “terrifying ordeal”. The judge said the attack took place in Ms McCarthy’s bedroom where she had the right to feel secure and safe.