Matthias Kelly sentenced for attempted murder of former wife’s friend

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Matthias Kelly received a 12-year prison sentence at the Central Criminal Court for attempting to murder Fiona Timmermans.

Judge Paul McDermott had assessed a term of 16 years before allowing for mitigation. He imposed concurrent terms of seven years for burglary, six years for threats to kill and three years each for producing a knife and criminal damage. The sentences were backdated to September 9, 2024.

Kelly admitted attempting to kill Timmermans at her home in Newbury Lawns, Clonshaugh, on September 7, 2024. She was a friend of his former wife, and he blamed her for their marriage ending.

The court heard that he entered through an open back door, took a kitchen knife and attacked Timmermans in her bedroom. She was treated for wounds to her forehead, face and neck. The judge said the assault had scarred her face and damaged her sense of safety.

The defence said Kelly had sustained a brain injury in a 2016 car crash and another head injury in a fall two days before the attack. McDermott said it was unclear whether the earlier injury had influenced the offence, although it would make imprisonment harder. He also accepted that Kelly’s wife described violence as uncharacteristic.

Mitigation included his guilty plea, remorse, efforts to address addiction and violence, and absence of previous convictions for violent offences. The judge said Kelly’s self-induced intoxication neither excused the attack nor counted in mitigation.