Left his aunt ‘for dead’ after vicious drug-fuelled attack

Man was on bail when he stabbed his aunt in the face

A man, who inflicted permanent and life-altering brain injuries on his aunt during a brutal cocaine-fuelled attack at her home, has had sentencing deferred after evidence in the case was heard at Monaghan Circuit Court.

Nyal Tumelty (30) of Coolderry, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm to Angela Cunningham at her home in Coughvalley, Carrickmacross, on Saturday April 22, 2023. He was on bail at the time for another serious and violent offence.

Separate counts relating to producing a glass bottle and a knife during the course of the incident were not included on the indictment, but formed part of the evidence on a full facts basis, as did the unlawful taking of Ms Cunningham’s car from her house immediately after the incident.

The court was told that Tumelty left his aunt “for dead” after the vicious, unprovoked attack in which she was struck on the head with a bottle, stabbed in the face, and kicked on the ground. He made no attempt to call emergency services and instead made off with her car after stealing the keys.

The injured woman was found lying in her own blood in the kitchen of her home the following day by concerned members of her family who had called to check up on her.

The extent of the shock, trauma and devastation caused by the incident was highlighted during the hearing as her loved ones recalled how the frenzied assault had changed their lives forever and left Angela — their mother, grandmother and sister — with “no quality of life” and permanently institutionalised.

Judge John Aylmer was also told how Ms Cunningham, now 65, and who was 63 at the time of the attack, spent many months in intensive care and hospitals up until about a year ago when she was taken to a residential fa cility. It is expected that she will remain there, and it was also confirmed that her condition has in fact been deteriorating over the past year.

It also emerged that Tumelty, a single man with no dependants who was brought up in Inniskeen, had attacked another woman who was jogging on the Carlingford Lough Greenway on September 25, 2021, and that he is currently serving a six-year, nine-month sentence for the offence handed down at Dundalk Circuit Court in January of this year.

In evidence given by Detective Inspector Adrian Durcan, it was revealed that Tumelty had been drinking in Dundalk from about 12 noon on the Saturday of the assault on his aunt, and that he was using cocaine as well.

He went to Ms Cunningham’s home in Clough valley at about 5:15pm that evening. Following the violent assault, her car was taken and later found abandoned in a laneway near Tumelty’s family home.

Horrific scene

Det Insp Durcan confirmed to Frank Martin BL, prosecuting, that her family became concerned when they hadn’t heard from her. Her son, Paul Cunningham, contacted his aunt, Ann Connolly. She and her husband, Jim, who had only returned from a holiday in Spain with Angela, went to her house at around 8:25pm and witnessed what they called a “horrific scene”.

The inspector emphasised that Ms Cunningham was unresponsive and had been left lying for about 27 hours and that, were it not for her family’s diligence, the outcome could have been even worse.

A glass bottle was found on the floor, which was covered in blood, he noted.

Ms Cunningham was taken to the Emergency Department at Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda, where her injuries were deemed life-threatening and she was intubated and placed on a ventilator.

While in hospital, Ms Cunningham received a range of treatments including physiotherapy and occupational therapy, with input from psychiatrists and dieticians. Her sleep was poor, she suffered from agitation and generally made “very slow” progress, having to be fed through a tube at one point.

She was taken to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in April 2024 and, for the past year, was being cared for at a residential centre in Co Meath. A report from the NRH observed that she had shown profound cognitive and communication impairments, exhibiting severe agitation and stress, and she requires two-on-one care support, as well as powerful sedative and mood stabilising drugs.

Ms Cunningham was also deemed highly likely to require constant supporting supervision for the remainder of her life. The inspector noted that she no longer had any capacity to manage her affairs, did not have a sufficient understanding of her injuries, and requires full support for her basic daily routine.

The psychological distress she had suffered was continuing to impact on her ability to fully participate in a rehab programme and she remained very confused and agitated. The court heard that she had, in fact, regressed and her condition was worse now than when she was at the NRH.

Details of the injuries sustained in the assault were outlined by Mr Martin, and these included complex and traumatic bruising and bleeding to various parts of the brain, a fracture to the neck, facial fractures, lacerations and bruising in the eye, ear and nose areas, and considerable bruising all over her body including ribs, shoulders, thighs and lower legs.

Tellingly, she had defensive wounds on both arms and it was clear that she received a number of blows to the head from a heavy glass bottle.

The court was told that, in the early hours of Monday April 24, 2023, Tumelty was taken to Carrickmacross Garda Station by his father, P.J. Tumelty, who had suspicions about his conduct.

He made admissions to the gardaí and said he hit his aunt after they had “a bit of an argument”. He said he hit her with a bottle and kept hitting her when she started screaming.

Off his head on coke

Having been in a pub earlier, Tumelty said he bought 1.5 grammes of cocaine before going to another pub. He said he was “off his head on coke” by the time he went to his aunt’s house.

She gave him some cigarettes and wine. He said they were sitting on a couch “having the craic”.

Then he got the bottle of wine and hit her over the head with it. She fell to the ground and was screaming. “So I kicked her and ran out of the house,” Tumelty told gardaí. He admitted kicking her “more than once” in the back of the head.

He also remembered picking up a knife that was on the table, but didn’t know if he’d used it. But he later admitted to having stabbed her in the face.

After that he said he took her Toyota Yaris car and “drove it around” before leaving it down a lane beside his house at Inniskeen. It was about 9pm and still bright when he got home to his parents’ house, where he lived.

Asked why he assaulted his aunt, Tumelty said he “wasn’t thinking”. He just wanted to shut her up. He would have called to her house regularly, and they always got on well.

During further interviews, Tumelty indicated that that he was on medication for psychosis, which he said was often brought on by drugs like ecstasy and weed.

Asked if it was his intention to do her harm, Tumelty stated that he didn’t know: “When I’m on drink and drugs, I’ve a different personality. I’ve an anger issue.”

He admitted that Ms Cunningham was in “a bad state” when he left and was lying on the floor breathing heavily. He knew he had blood on his hands.

Attack on female jogger

Det Insp Durcan alluded to Tumelty’s conviction for false imprisonment in respect of the walkway incident in Carlingford, Co Louth. The background was that he attacked a woman who was out jogging and held her down. But she managed to break free and raise the alarm.

He had been sentenced to six years and nine months’ in Mountjoy Prison, with the final 12 months suspended for two years on a peace bond. He also received a concurrent three years and nine months for assault causing harm in relation to the same incident.

The inspector confirmed that the defendant was on bail for the Carlingford incident at the time of the assault on Ms Cunningham.

When asked by James McGowan SC, representing Tumelty, if the defendant suffered from mental health issues, Det Insp Durcan said, if he had any such issues, they seemed to have been brought on by his own consumption of drugs.

Mr McGowan drew the court’s attention to psychiatric and probation and welfare reports relating to his client. Tumelty was the youngest of three children. He was brought up in Inniskeen and attended the Patrician High School, Carrickmacross. He later worked for a farmer, and as a driver, and for a two-year period with Kingspan.

But he lost his Kingspan job when he was 24 and restarted his misuse of alcohol and drugs, which had also been a feature from an earlier age. He started taking alcohol at age 12, and weed and hash when he was 17. In more recent years, he was in the habit of binge drinking with friends.

Tumelty was diagnosed with schizophrenia and it was evident from his history that when he used drugs and alcohol his overall mental outlook deteriorated and he was more likely to present with acute psychosis. But it was accepted that he did not meet the legal criteria for having a mental disorder.

Mr McGowan accepted it appeared to be a feature of this case that Tumelty had not properly accounted for his actions. But his probation officer felt he presented as “quite horrified and ashamed” of what he did. He claimed to be drug free, although it was accepted that he had “a positive reading” when tested while in custody in August of this year.

Asking that his client be given credit for his early plea, counsel said Tumelty had also asked that an apology be made in court on his behalf to the family.

‘Stuck in a wheelchair’

Those family members included Ms Cunnigham’s children Paul and Louise Cunningham, and Louise’s daughter Chloe, who each read extremely emotional and heart-rending victim impact statements.

Further statements were read into the record by Mr Martin on behalf of Ms Cunningham’s siblings Ann Connolly, Christina Keenan, Martin Tumelty and Anthony Tumelty, as well as her ex-husband Thomas Cummingham and brother-in-law Jim Connolly.

Showing a happy photo of his mother while she was on holiday in Spain just three days before the incident, Paul Cunningham said the weekend of April 22 and 23, 2023, “changed our lives forever and turned my world upside down”. At first they didn’t know if Angela would survive and it soon became clear that she was “never going to be the same again”.

How she survived after lying for close on 30 hours with no medical help he would never know. “And when our mother does pass away, it will be because of injuries that were inflicted on her that day,” he added.

His mother was 63 and perfectly healthy before Tumelty took advantage of her good nature when he had no business being at her home. She was left with “no quality of life and stuck in a wheelchair”.

Her two children had been robbed of a mother, and her six grandchildren of a grandmother who had loved them dearly. Her siblings were also robbed, and his mum remained a big part of his dad’s life too.

Her younger grandchildren used to be excited when she came to visit but now they are afraid to visit her because of the agitated behaviour that resulted from the attack.

Paul said he himself had been left with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There wasn’t one day that he didn’t think about his mother and the trauma she was put through.

Louise Cunningham said she would never get over the shock of going to the emergency room and seeing her mother with injuries so bad she was completely unrecognisable. A nurse had handed her a ziplock bag with blood-covered jewellery Ms Cunningham had been wearing, and that was when she knew it was her mother.

“I nearly collapsed to the floor with the shock,” she recalled, adding that she was 10 weeks’ pregnant at the time and that it was a miracle she hadn’t lost her unborn son.

While having to visibly compose herself, Louise said the images would haunt her for the rest of her life. Doctors had likened her mother’s injuries to what they would see in patients admitted after a severe road accident, as she was beaten with such force that she was left with significant and irreversible damage to both sides of her brain.

She had watched her mother spend weeks in the high-dependency unit of ICU, and then further months in high care before slowly coming out of an induced coma.

“It’s so cruel that she has survived to live the life she’s been left with,” Louise commented, remembering how, before that, Angela was independent and enjoyed helping others like the St Vincent de Paul branch in Carrickmacross.

But the most important part of her life was her family and she had loved nothing more than spending time with her grandchildren. Chloe, Louise’s daughter, was very close to her as the first grandchild. Chloe was also the last person with her before the attack, having gone shopping with her in Drogheda the previous day.

Her mother’s situation remained very grim despite the top-quality care she is receiving, Louise said. Nyal would one day walk out of prison and be free, but her mother would never be free. “Her life was stolen from her at the age of 63, in the most cruel, evil and inhumane way imaginable,” she said.

Chloe Cunningham recalled, in her statement, that her granny was the first person she would run to in an emergency. She was a woman like no other, and what happened to her had left a “gaping hole in my heart” that would never be filled.

“My granny taught me everything except how to live without her,” she added.

In statements read on their behalf, Ms Cunningham’s sisters Ann Connolly and Christina Keenan recalled how Angela’s love of the outdoors - cycling and walking - were taken from her. Her wonderful conversations with Christina, whom she had supported after a hip replacement, were now a thing of the past.

Anthony Tumelty, her younger brother, said it was beyond him how anyone could have done such a thing to Angela. It was all the more shocking it had been a family member.

Martin Tumelty said the kindness his sister had shown to her nephew was “repaid in the worst possible way”. Nyal did not call for help, he just walked away leaving her with catastrophic brain injuries. The sister he once knew no longer existed.

He said the ordeal was made worse by knowing that Angela wanted to help Nyal. It was that decision, borne from love, that had cost her everything.

“I will never stop mourning the sister I lost, even though she’s still alive,” Martin said.

Ms Cunningham’s former husband Thomas recalled her love for country bands, jiving and dancing, as well as her talent for painting. Hoping that Paul, Louise and their children would get the justice they deserved, he concluded, “The way he left her is far worse than dying.”

Jim Connolly, Angela’s brother-in-law said he and Ann needed counselling after being the first to come on the scene. He had been unable to continue in his job, and the crime had deeply affected the whole family.

Having had it confirmed by Mr Martin that the prosecution considered the offence in this case to be at the “upper end” of assault causing serious harm, for which a sentence of 15 years (more in some instances) could be imposed, Judge Aylmer said he would obviously need time to consider sentencing.

On that basis, the matter was adjourned to Cavan Circuit Court on November 20 next.