A mother-of-two who shot her husband dead with a gun she had bought him for Christmas nine days earlier walked free from court yesterday.
Norma Cotter (36) was sentenced to three years and six months in jail at the Central Criminal Court for the manslaughter of her husband Gary (40), who was a corporal in the Army.
However, she avoided further imprisonment because she was deemed by the judge to have served her time awaiting trial.
Handing down the sentence, Mr Justice Peart said there were "times when the court's punishment must be tempered with some mercy and compassion".
The court heard Cotter killed her husband after a drunken row at their Co Cork home on January 3rd, 1995, with the shotgun she had given him for Christmas.
Cpl Cotter, who was a keen hunter, had finished his shift with the Army on guard duty at Portlaoise prison the night before his death and had gone out drinking with his wife and friends at a local pub.
At 1.30 a.m. he said he was tired and returned home, but his wife of four years stayed drinking half-pints with the rest of the party.
A row broke out between them when she walked into their upstairs bedroom at 4.30 a.m. and vomited and he banished her to the spare room.
The dispute continued later that morning at their home in Midleton over who would pick up their young son, Christopher, from his grandparents.
The court heard Cotter had gone downstairs, loaded the gun and returned to the bedroom and fired two shots.
One hit the wall and one went into her husband's side.
The judge said it had been suggested Mr Cotter - who had served in Lebanon - had sometimes hit his wife when he had been drinking whiskey, as he was on the night of his death, but he said this evidence fell far short of what was required for him to find there was a pattern of violent abuse that was acceptable provocation for the killing.
He said his sentence for the "heinous" and "tragic" killing was mitigated by Cotter's guilty plea and because it was her first offence and she had a son and an infant daughter to care for.
"The events of that night would have left its scars on many people and I don't forget its effect on Gary Cotter's family and friends," he said.
In 1996 she was found guilty of her husband's murder, but the conviction was quashed on appeal by the Court of Criminal Appeal, leading to a retrial.
Last week she pleaded not guilty to murder and a jury was sworn in, but the jurors were discharged when she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and it was accepted by the prosecution.
Cotter made no comment as she left court. She served her time awaiting her appeal and the court heard she had returned to part-time work as waitress as well as caring for Christopher, now 11, and her baby daughter, whom she had by another man who had since left her.