A man who pressed a hammer against a woman’s head during a terrifying apartment block burglary in Letterkenny has been jailed.
Matthew Lafferty brandished the hammer during a violent incident in June 2022 before embarking on a burglary spree in the town in September 2024.
Matthew Lafferty and his co-accused, Amanda Coleman, were charged in connection with an incident at Robinsons Hall, Port Road Apartments, Letterkenny, on June 1, 2022 and also with a spate of burglaries on September 20, 2024 when a total of €4,800 cash was taken in the incidents while €5,330 worth of damage was caused.
Lafferty, a 34-year-old of no fixed abode and previously of Robinsons Hall Apartments, Port Road, Letterkenny and Coleman, a 40-year-old with addresses at Kilmacrennan Road, Letterkenny and Lismonaghan, Letterkenny, have 132 previous convictions between them. Lafferty has 69 previous convictions and Coleman 63.
At Letterkenny Circuit Court, Judge John Aylmer described the apartment incident as a “very violent invasion” in which Lafferty put residents in enormous fear, while Coleman was told she should consider herself “very fortunate” after receiving a fully suspended four-and-a-half-year sentence to allow her to pursue rehabilitation.
Detective Garda Christopher Sweeney outlined the case to barrister for the State, Ms Fiona Crawford BL.
The court heard that on June 1, 2022 Lafferty – who was also living in an apartment on the same block – burst into another apartment, produced a hammer and shouted: “Keep the fucking noise down before I put your fucking skulls through”.
Lafferty later held the hammer to a woman’s head as he told her: “You don’t know who I am. You don’t know what I’m like”.
During the incident, a woman told how Lafferty “struck” a man in the property while he also made a threat to another man.
The court heard that Coleman made threats to kill two people in the property.
A hammer was found at a stairwell in the apartment block a short time later and detectives took statements from residents.
Lafferty pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated burglary and to a charge that, in the court of a dispute, he produced an article capable of inflicting serious injury, a hammer.
He also pleaded guilty to two charges of making threats to kill or cause serious harm to two people while Coleman pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary and to making threats to kill or cause serious harm to a person.
Detective Garda Sweeney confirmed that seven commercial premises were subjected to thefts and/or damage in the burglary spree.
The duo targeted Zen Hair & Beauty, Port Road; Mr Chippie Takeaway, Ramelton Road; Ace Barbers, Oliver Plunkett Road; Uviolki, Pearse Road; Future Style Barber Shop, Unit 2 Pearse Road; Bronze Age, Port Road; and Hue Hair Salon, Pearse Road.
CCTV was downloaded and Detective Garda Stephen Moyles identified Lafferty and Coleman. They were later arrested at Letterkenny Bus Station.
Nothing of evidential value was gleaned from interviews. When asked what she got out of the escapade, Coleman told detectives: “I got new charges”.
She told interviewers that had been in a relationship with Lafferty and added: “I hold my hands up. Anywhere he goes, I have to go”.
Lafferty, put into the witness box by his barrister, Mr Peter Nolan BL, said he wanted to apologise to the residents in Robinsons Hall.
He told the court that he engaged in the burglaries as he had accrued a drug debt.
Lafferty told Judge Aylmer that he is in 23-hour lock-up in prison and his time inside has been “difficulty” as he has been a target due to another altercation. He said that he has to “choose between protection and rehabilitation”.
Lafferty said he has been “in and out” of prison for around 18 years and when asked what drugs he takes he replied: “Anything”.
A letter from Lafferty was also handed into the court..
Mr Nolan said that Lafferty and Coleman suffered a tragedy in their lives around this time.
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He told the court that Lafferty may benefit from intervention by the Probation Service.
Admitting that real mitigation was “hard to come up with”, Mr Nolan added: “I ask you to give him light at the end of the tunnel – not locking him away 23 hours a day and hoping that the problem will solve itself”.
Mr Timothy Morrow BL, barrister for Coleman, said his client “readily admitted” her part in the offending.
“It was a spur of the moment incident and was done in the heat of the moment,” he said in relation to the incident in the apartment. “She felt as if she had no choice”.
Mr Morrow said Coleman had a “highly destabilised and volatile upbringing,” and noted that she was in residential care until the age of 18. He referred to negative experiences within the care system, which had a lasting effect.
While Coleman was previously in a relationship with Lafferty, Mr Morrow said he was now advised that this was no longer the case.
He said Coleman has used heroin, crystal meth and cannabis.
Mr Morrow asked the court to give her as much leniency as possible.
He said: “We could throw the book at Ms Coleman, but she is a woman who has significant challenges and I want to give her as best an opportunity as possible.”
In passing sentence, Judge Aylmer said that Lafferty made “very credible” threats to kill, having entered a property and brandished a hammer while threatening the occupants.
Lafferty pressed a hammer against one person’s forehead and put them in “enormous fear”, Judge Aylmer said, adding that the impact would have been “very negative” to the woman’s sense of safety and security in her own home.
“It was a very violent invasion,” Judge Aylmer said.
He said the fact that Lafferty had previous convictions for burglary was an aggravating factor and placed the offending in the mid-range with a headline sentence for seven years on the aggravated burglary charge and four years for the production of the hammer “given the manner if was wielded in”.
The burglaries, he said, merited a total of four years in prison before considering mitigation.
He said that Lafferty was “using all kinds of drugs” at the time and noted that a guilty plea had spared expense and time for a trial. He said that Lafferty has significant mental health issues and addiction, but said that he had put forward “too much justification” to the Probation Service. He told the defendant that he was “Farr too self-indulgent” and showed “far too little acceptance.”
Judge Aylmer said he had to have regard to the totality principle and, in the first instance, reduced the sentences to five-and-a-half, three and three years in prison respectively.
This meant a total of eight-and-a-half-years imprisonment. In order to encourage rehabilitation and serious engagement, Judge Aylmer suspended the totality of the three-year sentence and the final 12 months of the five-and-a-half-year sentence for a period of four years. Lafferty must enter a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for four years following his release and go under the supervision of the Probation Service for 18 months.
Judge Aylmer said he would give credit for all time spent in custody and told Lafferty: “Any breach of conditions or any offending and you will have to serve the remaining four years”.
Judge Aylmer said that Coleman was before the court on a guilty plea of threats to kill and burglary in relation to the first matter.
“The evidence establishes that you were enthusiastically aiding and abetting as you entered the premises of your neighbours,” Judge Aylmer said. “While he (Lafferty) wielded the hammer, you are fortunate not to be before the court as an aider and abettor”.
The judge said that Coleman was “very culpable”, although she did attempt to calm Lafferty down when it appeared as if he was going to strike a blow.
He said the offending merited a starting point of four years in prison before considering mitigation. In relation to the burglaries, Judge Aylmer said it was accepted that Lafferty was the “driving force”.
Coleman had pleaded guilty to four of these matters on a representative basis and Judge Aylmer said they merited a headline sentence of two years in prison – meaning a total of six years before mitigation was considered.
Judge Aylmer said that there is a strong indication that Coleman is ready to engage in rehabilitation. He said she has been accepted into a programme and a medical professional has said that she is at an important crossroads in terms of rehab.
He reduced the sentences on the first incident to three years in prison and reduced the sentence for the burglaries to 18 months imprisonment.
To give Coleman a chance at attending rehabilitation and to incentive the development of a relationship with her son, Judge Aylmer said he was suspending the entreaty of the four-and-a-half-year sentence with Coleman entering a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for four-and-a-half years and to go under the supervision of the Probation Service for two years.
Judge Aylmer told Coleman: “You should consider yourself very fortunate”.