Prison terms handed down following violent death of Sligo man in Tyrone

Mr Justice Fowler began by commending the victim’s widow Ellie Ward for “the composed and compelling way” she gave evidence.

He said, “No-one could be anything but moved. What you have had to cope with would break many people. I can only imagine how difficult this was and still is. It has impacted every aspect of your life, your children and wider family.

“No sentence I can impose will replace the void of a much-loved husband, father, son and brother. I can only hope the conclusion of these proceedings brings some level of closure.”

Cox, having pleaded guilty to murder, was previously sentenced to life imprisonment and Judge Fowler was tasked with setting the minimum term to be served entirely. He said the “gratuitous violence and degrading of the victim, being stripped, dragged and left in an alleyway before his death,” meant sentencing began at a higher starting point.

A set of suggested facts put forward by Cox was rejected by the court, and “he was given the opportunity to and be cross-examined on his own account, but he declined this.

“There is no basis of plea, instead only the instructions provided by Cox to his defence which were wholly self-serving.” He continued, “I am satisfied he engaged in a brutal attack using a number of weapons. I am satisfied the viciousness and persistence of the attack meant his intention was to kill the victim. I am not satisfied he acted in self-defence, nor was he provoked to any great degree. “The only mitigator was the guilty plea, which came late and after a trial date had been fixed

“It was noted Cox was on bail for serious matters at the time of the murder and has not responded to previous sentences and the consumption of alcohol and drugs were rejected as reasons for his behaviour.” He ordered Cox to serve 20 years imprisonment. In addition, he found that Cox presents as dangerous and is a significant risk to the public, which may impact on his eventual release date.

Turning to McDonald, Judge Fowler noted she was acquitted of murder, but convicted of manslaughter.

He said, “It is for me to form a view of the evidence. I cannot be satisfied to the required standards she attacked Mr Ward. While there may be suspicion there is no evidence under oath.

“She did lift Mr Ward’s legs as he was dragged from the house, then dropped them. She told police her actions were to help him get up and go home. I am completely satisfied that was a lie which the jury rightly rejected which was designed to distance her from what occurred that night.

“She well knew Mr Ward was beaten with weapons and stabbed and left critically injured.

“She and Cox removed him from the house. She observed the vicious assault on him and was aware of his injuries. It is to her shame she did nothing to assist him. “She showed a callous and supreme indifference to this dying man’s plight. Her contention that she believed he would get up and walk home to get help was disingenuous.” He said he was satisfied she was involved in a clean-up to hide evidence.

Judge Fowler ordered her to serve 10 years in prison, split evenly between custody and on licence, meaning her release is imminent, having served the majority of this on remand.

THE severity of the situation in relation to elements of paediatric care at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) at Temple Street after one child died and others suffered serious post-surgery complications following spinal surgery there have still to emerge, a Sligo solicitor has stated.

Ciaran Tansey of Damien Tansey Solicitors, Sligo and Dublin, who are representing the families of some of the children impacted by the issues which arose following spinal surgery. Post surgery complications, infections, surgeries to remove existing metalwork have emerged. Mr Tansey confirmed this week that their firm would be conducting their own independent review into what happened.

Already the HSE has confirmed they have commissioned an external review.

“These are complex surgeries to begin with. Inevitably there would have been issues perhaps in a small percentage of cases, and that is accepted by the families. They would have been aware of that level or risk going into the surgeries, but the figures that were released on Tuesday were troubling in the extreme,” Mr Tansey said.

Those figures revealed that over 81 percent of surgeries required further unplanned surgeries. The HSE has commissioned an external review which is focusing on the clinical care provided by an individual consultant at CHI. The consultant is no longer conducting surgeries and a referral has been made about them to the Irish Medical Council.

The review arises from very serious concerns identified by CHI since last year in relation to poor surgical outcomes in spinal surgery at Temple Street.

Among the concerns were the use of a certain spinal surgical technique and a significant number of negative post-surgery outcomes, which led to serious complications and in one case the death of a child.

Speaking to Ocean FM on Wednesday, Mr Tansey said a CHI report had only been released in the past 48 hours which has resulted in the families, their legal representatives “remain principally in the dark about what happened”.

He added: “There have been very serious concerns with paediatric/orthopaedic surgeries carried out at Temple Street. Reports reveal that the incidence of problems arising from those surgeries they have selected, in percentage terms have been off the charts in terms of post-surgery complications, infections to require the removal of existing metalwork.

“The figures released in the last 48 hours were troubling in the extreme.

“81.2 percent of the surgeries this review involved required further unplanned surgeries. It is hard to fathom.”

The report from CHI also revealed that the rate of infection post-surgery was 75 percent. 56 percent of children who had the surgery suffered metalwork complications the report also confirmed.

“The aggregate from all of that paints a quite horrific picture,” Mr Tansey said.

He added: “These are children. If you are hit with this level of an issue so early in your life, it is going to make it incredibly difficult for the children, and this has come to pass.”

He said the families were struggling to come to terms with what had happened.