GARDA killer Pearse McAuley will be sentenced on Friday for the Christmas Eve knife attack that left his wife hospitalised.
McAuley had been due to be sentenced yesterday at Cavan Circuit Criminal Court but the case was delayed until the end of the week because his senior counsel was unable to attend the hearing.
Before passing sentence, Judge John Aylmer is set to hear a victim impact statement from McAuley’s estranged wife, former Sinn Féin councillor Pauline Tully.
In June, 50-year-old McAuley, who is originally from Strabane in Co Tyrone, but who had been living at an address in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, pleaded guilty to producing a knife during a dispute and to intentionally/recklessly causing serious harm to Ms Tully.
He also admitted threatening to kill Ms Tully’s brother Thomas Tully during the same incident which took place at Kilderry, Kilnaleck, Cavan, on December 24 last year
Ms Tully (47) has two children with McAuley, whom she married in 2003.
The former couple met when she was part of a Sinn Féin delegation visiting McAuley in Castlerea Prison, Co Roscommon, where he was serving 14 years for killing father-of-five Detetective Garda Jerry McCabe during a botched raid on a postal van in Adare, Co Limerick, in 1996.
The IRA man’s five-day release in January 2003 to get married was heavily criticised by the McCabe family.
The Irish News revealed last year that after his 2009 release McAuley had been a recipient of a 'letter of comfort' as part of the controversial 'on the run' scheme in connection with his 1991 escape from London’s Brixton Prison.
