A WOMAN, 50, who used excessive force in self-defence when she fatally stabbed her partner in a Dublin apartment “in response to an anticipated attack”, has been jailed for five years.
The Central Criminal Court previously heard that Ann Phelan, who had her own “demons with drugs” and led a “disruptive life”, told gardai she was in “total fear”, that she didn’t mean to kill her ex-partner David Ennis and what had happened was a “tragic accident”.
The court heard that Mr Ennis had suffered head injuries after a fall from a balcony a few days before he was killed and had been behaving in an aggressive way.
Phelan’s barrister Fiona Murphy SC alongside Carol Doherty BL had informed the court during a sentencing hearing that her client was “tortured by her actions” and had genuinely cared for Mr Ennis.
The pair were “in a relationship of sorts” for two to three years where drugs were “sadly” a feature, the court heard.
Sentencing Phelan at the Central Criminal Court today, presiding judge Mr Justice Paul Burns noted that the defendant was acting in self defence in response to an anticipated attack from the deceased.
It was confirmed by a detective at the sentence hearing that the defendant thought Mr Ennis had a knife at the time. Phelan also thought she had stabbed him in the arm but the knife had gone into his side.
Ann Phelan was originally charged with the murder of David Ennis, 36, at Claddagh Court in Ballyfermot on the night of November 8, 2022.
However, last November Phelan, of Aylward Green, Finglas, Dublin 11, pleaded guilty to manslaughter when she was arraigned before the court.
Phelan has 26 previous convictions, of which the majority are for public order offences and non-appearance before court.
In a victim impact statement read to the court last month by the detective in the case, the deceased’s mother Geraldine Ennis said her son was “a hard-working man in his day and always helped me out whenever he could”.
Mrs Ennis said her son’s life “tragically ended too soon” and that she was “devastated and heartbroken beyond words” that she will never see him again.
She said she now needed “closure” and to let him rest in peace.
The court heard that a small potato peeler-like knife was found wrapped in some bedding adjacent to where Mr Ennis’ body was found. Blood on the blade of the knife matched the deceased’s DNA profile.
Phelan gave a voluntary cautioned interview to gardai in which she said Mr Ennis told her he would stab her and “the next thing he was on the floor with blood coming out of him”.
Mr Justice Burns sentenced Phelan to six years imprisonment with the final year suspended.
