THE Republic's Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is to appeal the leniency of the jail sentence handed down to Provisional IRA veteran Pearse McAuley for a brutal knife attack on his estranged wife.
The convicted garda killer was sentenced to eight years last month for the violent assault on Pauline Tully McAuley, stabbing her 13 times in front of their children.
The 50-year-old, one of the IRA men jailed for the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996, had pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, producing a knife and causing serious harm to her at their home in Co Cavan in December 2014.
The sentencing hearing last month was told that the DPP felt the incident was in the most serious category of these offences and merited a 12-year sentence.
Judge John Aylmer agreed but suspended four of the 12 years because of McAuley's guilty plea and his expressions of remorse and shame.
McAuley will be released in less than five years due to remission and time already served.
Ms Tully McAuley, a former Sinn Féin councillor, said she would be living in fear for the rest of her life.
During her victim impact statement read out in court, she said he subjected her to "verbal and emotional abuse" during the two-and-a-half hour ordeal which saw McAuley stab, punch and kick her.
She added that she was treated "worse than an animal" during the savage attack in which McAuley told his children to say goodbye to their mother.
