Cahill sentencing judge says two-way domestic violence situation was very ‘unusual’
A New Ross woman who killed her fiancé in Sydney told a judge she did not leave the ‘controlling and fairly unpleasant’ man as she loved him dearly.
Cathrina (Tina) Cahill is due to be sentenced on December 12 for the manslaughter of David ‘Motcha’ Walsh, a father-of-four who died aged 2019 following a stab wound inflicted by Ms Cahill at their Padstow, Sydney home in the early hours of February 18, 2017.
‘I honestly thought he was going to change,’ Ms Cahill said at her sentence hearing in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, before adding ‘He was someone I did love and adore.’
The 27-year-old has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Her plea was based on substantial impairment due to an abnormality of the mind.
At the time, she was on a good behaviour bond and the subject of an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) issued to protect Mr Walsh, after she was convicted of recklessly wounding him with a glass candle holder in 2015.
Cahill previously gave evidence about his repeated violence, including punching strangers and biting her all over her body, his accusations of her sleeping with other men and his deleting texts from her phone. Prosecutor Nanette Williams noted Cahill told police, after an AVO was issued against Mr Walsh to protect her, that she held no fears against him. ‘I was in fear of getting in more trouble from David if I told the truth,’ she said, saying she also wanted to protect him.
She had packed her bags many times to leave him, but Mr Walsh would tell her everything was going to be different. ‘He would be making me dinner, buying me flowers, buying me a teddy bear but after two to three weeks it would go back to the way it was.’
She agreed with Justice Peter Johnson that her evidence revealed a ‘pretty stormy relationship’ and that Mr Walsh might be seen to be a ‘controlling and fairly unpleasant person’. But she said she stayed with him as ‘I loved him very dearly’.
The fatal attack occurred when an intoxicated Mr Walsh launched an unprovoked attack on a man invited into the home by Cahill and the two other female house-mates. Cahill, who also had been drinking, was punched by her fiancé when trying to stop the attack, before she took out a ‘ large, very sharp, bladed knife’ from the cutlery drawer and stabbed him.
Ms Williams submitted it was ‘an attack of extreme violence’ upon a relatively young man who was being activity restrained by a third person at the time. The cases of violence from Mr Walsh to Cahill, on the agreed facts, were limited while her attacks on him had involved a candle and a knife in an incident prior to the fatal attack.
Two ex-boyfriends of Cahill said she was never violent towards them. Statements from two Irish men who previously dated Cahill were submitted to the Sydney court on Tuesday with one of her exes saying they would still be together if she hadn’t moved to Australia. Her other ex described her as ‘a bright, bubbly girl who was always good to be around’.
James, who dated Ms Cahill for two years from 2008, said he was introduced to Tina by a co-worker at Tesco supermarket in New Ross. He said the couple were in a relationship for two years. He said: ‘Our relationship ended when Tina moved to Australia in 2010. During our relationship, I never experienced any violence or aggression by Tina towards me or received a threat of violence from Tina. Nor did I experience Tina being violent or aggressive to another person or threatening any other person, likewise in respect of animals.’
Cahill’s barrister James Trevallion said there was no evidence his client had ever struck Mr Walsh without any provocation and noted she was smaller than him.
He submitted she had no intention to kill, the stabbing had involved a single jab and Mr Walsh was the one who initiated the violence. Justice Johnson said the case involved ‘unusual features’ such as a ‘ type of two-way domestic violence’.