Galway Bay fm newsroom - A judge has refused a Galway convicted killer’s application to spend Christmas at home with her mother in Connemara.
Maura Thornton, from Inverin, is back in prison after breaking the terms of a suspended sentence she received for killing her ex-boyfriend in 2011.
In 2013, Maura Thornton, then aged 31, was handed a ten-year prison sentence with the final three years suspended for the manslaughter of her ex-boyfriend, Kevin Joyce, whom she stabbed eighteen times at her apartment in Salthill in Galway.
Two months ago, a warrant for her arrest was issued after the court was told she had “fallen by the wayside in terms of drug and alcohol abuse”
One of the conditions of her release was that she stay clean for the duration of the suspended portion of her sentence.
She blamed the isolation felt during the pandemic for her relapse.
She’s now back in prison, where Mr Justice Paul McDermott heard she is engaging with services and is anxious to get her freedom back.
Her application to spend Christmas at home with her mother was denied.
Instead, the judge adjourned the matter for two months to allow for a structured plan for her recovery to be put in place before he decides on the best way forward.
