![\"Angela](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0023829f-614.jpg\"\/)
\nAngela Cunningham sustained permanent and life-changing injuries in the attack<\/p>\n
The family of a woman attacked by her nephew in Co Monaghan has expressed disappointment after he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with the final two years suspended.<\/p>\n
Angela Cunningham was left with permanent and life-altering brain injuries after the attack at her home in Cloughvalley, Carrickmacross, on 22 April 2023.<\/p>\n
Nyal Tumelty, 30, of Coolderry, Inniskeen in Co Monaghan, pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm to his aunt.<\/p>\n
Speaking outside Cavan Circuit Court, Ms Cunningham’s daughter, Louise Cunningham, said she felt deflated as the family was hoping for a “stronger sentence”.<\/p>\n
She said her mother was beaten so badly that she has significant and permanent brain damage.<\/p>\n
“Although she survived, the mother we knew never recovered. Today Nyal received essentially a ten-year sentence.<\/p>\n
“But when he attacked our mother, she was given a life sentence due to the injuries he inflicted upon her.<\/p>\n
“The length of the sentence is heartbreaking, and it doesn’t feel like justice has been served.”<\/p>\n
\nAngela Cunningham sustained permanent and life-changing injuries in the attack<\/p>\n
Judge John Aylmer said the “appalling” and “frenzied attack” was fuelled by alcohol and cocaine.<\/p>\n
Ms Cunningham had been struck on the head with a bottle, stabbed in the face, and kicked while on the ground.<\/p>\n
No attempt was made to call emergency services or for help.<\/p>\n
Instead, the court heard, Tumelty unlawfully took Ms Cunningham’s car.<\/p>\n
She was found lying injured in the kitchen of her home the following day by concerned members of her family who had called to check on her.<\/p>\n
Judge Aylmer said she had suffered head injuries and no longer has decision-making capacity.<\/p>\n
Ms Cunningham, who is 65, is being cared for at a residential facility.<\/p>\n
![\"Louise](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/00238292-614.jpg\"\/)
\nAngela Cunningham’s daughter Louise (C) spoke outside the court after the sentencing<\/p>\n
Jugde Aylmer said the evidence of the effect the injuries had on her was extremely difficult to listen to.<\/p>\n
An aggregating factor of the case, he said, was that Tumelty was on bail at the time for assault causing harm and the false imprisonment of a woman in Carlingford, Co Louth.<\/p>\n
He is serving a sentence of six years and nine months for that attack.<\/p>\n
The judge said that the attack was fuelled by alcohol and drugs, and Tumelty had little recollection of what happened, but that was “no excuse”.<\/p>\n
His diagnosis of schizophrenia was secondary to the drug-induced psychosis, Judge Aylmer added.<\/p>\n
He said the mitigating circumstances were that Tumelty presented himself to garda\u00ed, cooperated with authorities and admitted to attacking his aunt.<\/p>\n
Judge Aylmer also said it appears that he is ashamed and horrified and remorseful of his actions.<\/p>\n
He sentenced Tumelty to 12 years in prison with the final two years suspended.<\/p>\n
The judge also ordered two years supervision post release.<\/p>\n
In a letter read out to the court, Tumelty said that he was “truly sorry” for what happened and that he had ruined his aunt’s life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a woman attacked by her nephew in Co Monaghan has expressed disappointment after he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-150349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}