Woman was serving suspended sentence when she punched and slashed two men

Appellant

Charges: producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury, two counts of Section 2 assault and two counts of criminal damage at Clare Street, Limerick on May 15, 2023; the May 2023 offences (Alleged Or Contested)

Outcome: John Edwards dismissed the appeal, saying Melissa Whelan attacked her victim with a potentially lethal weapon. (Photo: Collins) By Fiona Magennis The daughter of a convicted murderer has failed to have her four-year sentence reduced on appeal after she punched one man and slashed another with a knife in an "unprovoked" attack whilst under a partially suspended sentence for a brutal assault that left the victim in an induced coma. The judge said Whelan had previously been given a "significant chance" but had failed to adhere to the conditions on which that sentence had been part suspended. "The whole point of a suspended sentence is to hold a "Sword of Damocles" over an offender," he said. "The sentencing judge fully took into account the difficult circumstances of the appellant's case and reflected that in the decision not to have her serve the full four and a half years but rather to require her to serve just two years of that." Mr Justice Edwards said the judge had sought to balance

Appellant

Charges: producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury, two counts of Section 2 assault and two counts of criminal damage at Clare Street, Limerick on May 15, 2023; the May 2023 offences (Admitted)

Plea: Guilty

Outcome: Whelan was previously jailed for seven and a half years for causing serious harm after she assaulted a recovering road crash victim, striking him in the face with a bottle and punching and kicking him several times before dragging him outside the house party they were attending in Limerick on May 6, 2015. Whelan had originally been sentenced to twelve years with the final three suspended by Judge Thomas O'Donnell on April 4, 2017 but this was quashed and replaced on appeal with a sentence of twelve years with four and a half years suspended.