{"id":482876,"date":"2026-06-04T15:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482876\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:10:09","slug":"sons-killing-of-mother-left-family-severely-divided-central-criminal-court-trial-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482876\/","title":{"rendered":"Son\u2019s killing of mother left family \u2018severely divided\u2019, Central Criminal Court trial told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A family member of a woman \u201cbrutally killed\u201d by her son has told the Central Criminal Court<\/a> that it felt as if the deceased had been the one on trial. <\/p>\n

Another said the defendant was \u201cnever given a chance\u201d by his \u201cvery violent\u201d mother.<\/p>\n

One of the defendant\u2019s brothers told the court his sibling had kicked a 62-year-old grandmother to death and stepped on her \u201clifeless body\u201d as he left her to die. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t leave a dog in that state,\u201d another brother said. <\/p>\n

The actions of Luke Donnelly (29), who told a jury he had \u201clost all control\u201d and kicked his mother Catherine Henry to death after she threatened to kill him, have \u201cseverely divided\u201d his family, the court was told.<\/p>\n

Last February, Donnelly was found not guilty of murdering his mother but guilty of manslaughter by a Central Criminal Court jury, after they accepted his defence that he had been provoked. <\/p>\n

The court heard Henry had taken out a safety order against her son in 2020.<\/p>\n

Donnelly had told his trial how he had been \u201cgroomed\u201d into a life of drugs and violence by his allegedly abusive mother. \u201cIn my whole life of being attacked and abused I had never defended myself, just waited for it to be over,\u201d he told the court. <\/p>\n

Donnelly, of no fixed abode, had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter at Henry\u2019s apartment on Bridge Street, Dundalk, Co Louth, on a date unknown between May 23rd and 24th, 2023.<\/p>\n

He accepted he had caused multiple fractures to his mother\u2019s skull and that he had left a blood-stained footprint on her back.<\/p>\n

Describing the fatal encounter, Donnelly said he had closed his eyes and \u201cwaited for it to be over\u201d as his mother lunged at him. <\/p>\n

At that moment, Donnelly said, he was in fear for his life, snapped and threw a punch. \u201cI lost all control and proceeded to stomp, it all happened in a moment,\u201d he said, adding he believed his mother was going to kill him.<\/p>\n

At a sentence hearing on Wednesday, prosecuting barrister Garret Baker said there was a divergence of views as to how members of the family got along with their mother.<\/p>\n

In a statment, Kathleen Donnelly said her younger brother Luke had never been given a chance to make something of his life while growing up. \u201cHe was groomed by our mother and [a] fugitive criminal. She was not a nice person to be around, the last memory I have of her is her threatening to kill me. She was a very violent mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a letter of apology read to the court by his barrister, Donnelly said he wanted to apologise to \u201cthe victims\u201d in the case. \u201cI take full responsibility for what I did,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like a completely different person who committed this offence, it feels like a lifetime ago\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his victim impact statement, the defendant\u2019s brother Robert Donnelly said his mother Catherine was \u201cthe best\u201d, that she had given her family \u201ceverything in life\u201d and that what his sibling had taken from his family could never be replaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggle to live without my mother, my mother saved my life so many times, I owe her everything, all the family does\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing details as to what happened to her, you wouldn\u2019t leave a dog in that state … he left her there to die.\u201d <\/p>\n

The deceased\u2019s sister Elizabeth Kenny said \u201calthough Luke brutally killed her, it felt like she was on trial\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a deeply loving person with a wonderful sense of humour … she loved her children unconditionally and also adored her grandchildren\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another son, Jonathan Donnelly, said in his statement that the loss of their \u201cloving\u201d mother had devastated the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is responsible for severely dividing and shattering the sense of safety and trust within our family,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Justice Paul McDermott remanded Donnelly in custody until June 19th for sentencing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A family member of a woman \u201cbrutally killed\u201d by her son has told the Central Criminal Court that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42851,9690,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-482876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-dundalk","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482876","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=482876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}