Limerick mother who punched and slashed victims in unprovoked attack fails to have sentence reduced

THE daughter of a convicted murderer has failed to have her four-year sentence reduced on appeal after she punched one man and slashed another with a knife in an “unprovoked” attack whilst under a partially suspended sentence for a brutal assault that left the victim in an induced coma.

Melissa Whelan (34), Phoenix Lodge, Sarsfield Park, Limerick pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court in April 2024 to producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury, two counts of Section 2 assault and two counts of criminal damage at Clare Street, Limerick on May 15, 2023.

Whelan was previously jailed for seven and a half years for causing serious harm after she assaulted a recovering road crash victim, striking him in the face with a bottle and punching and kicking him several times before dragging him outside the house party they were attending in Limerick on May 6, 2015. He was kept in an induced coma and spent six weeks in the National Rehabilitation Centre in Dun Laoghaire.

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Whelan had originally been sentenced to twelve years with the final three suspended by Judge Thomas O’Donnell on April 4, 2017 but this was quashed and replaced on appeal with a sentence of twelve years with four and a half years suspended.

She was subject to the terms of the partially suspended portion of this jail term when she pleaded guilty to the May 2023 offences.

The mother-of-four was sentenced to four years in prison with the final two years suspended by Judge Dermot Sheahan on June 21, 2024. Judge Sheahan also re-activated two years of Whelan’s previously suspended sentence, ordering it to run consecutively with her new sentence, resulting in a total prison term of four years.

The sentencing court was told that on May 15, 2023, Whelan returned to accommodation in Limerick she was sharing with one of the victims who was present in the company of the second injured party. She was extremely intoxicated and was described by both men as being “completely out of it”.

Whelan erroneously believed the two men had been talking about her and laughing at her. She punched one of the men, connecting with him at least twice.

The 34-year-old took both men’s mobile phones from a nearby table and picked up two knives from a countertop. She waved the knives at the second man in a downward motion resulting in cuts and grazes to his arm.

Launching an appeal against her conviction today, lawyers for Whelan argued that the headline sentence of four years was too high, the sentence imposed was too severe in all circumstances and that the judge had failed to give sufficient regard to the many mitigating factors in the case, including the appellant’s serious mental health difficulties.

In dismissing the appeal on behalf of the three-judge court today, Mr Justice John Edwards said this was “very serious offending” with many aggravating factors involving not one but two victims, both of whom were harmed.

He said the attack was unprovoked; Whelan has previous convictions for violence and the article involved - a sharp kitchen knife - was “potentially lethal”. He noted the victims’ mobile phones were taken from them and deliberately damaged in an effort to stop them seeking help or raising the alarm.

Mr Justice Edwards found no error with the headline sentence of four years. He said adequate discount for mitigation was given and the sentencing judge was “fully alive” to the mental health issue.

“We are satisfied any discount for mental health was incorporated in the two-year discount to result in a final sentence of two years,” he noted.

The court also found no error in the judge’s decision to re-activate two years of the four and a half year suspended sentence.

 The judge said Whelan had previously been given a “significant chance” but had failed to adhere to the conditions on which that sentence had been part suspended.

“The whole point of a suspended sentence is to hold a “Sword of Damocles” over an offender,” he said. “The sentencing judge fully took into account the difficult circumstances of the appellant’s case and reflected that in the decision not to have her serve the full four and a half years but rather to require her to serve just two years of that.”

Mr Justice Edwards said the judge had sought to balance “censure and punishment” on the one hand with “mercy” for Whelan’s circumstances on the other.

“We are satisfied he got the balance right”.

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During the appeal hearing, defence barrister Joanne Williams BL argued the sentencing  judge failed to give adequate consideration to her client’s serious mental health difficulties, as set out in a psychological report by forensic psychologist Dr Mark Fitzpatrick.

She said the appellant had endured a traumatic childhood, noting that her father had been convicted of murder and that Whelan's mother had beaten her “to a pulp” when she was young. Ms Williams said a further traumatic event occurred when Whelan’s child was born prematurely at 20 weeks following an assault by her then-partner who kicked her in the stomach.

“The psychologist said what happened in this incident reminded her of what happened with her partner, and this is what triggered this incident,” she said.

Alcohol and cannabis use had been a feature of Whelan’s life from a young age, the barrister said, and she had had repeated admissions to the local psychiatric department.

Fiona McGowan, for the DPP, contended the judge had made no error and the sentence imposed was proportionate.

“There is a time where a balance has to be struck between offending and protecting society from the person before the court,” she said.