THE FAMILY of a woman suffering from Multiple Sclerosis who died after being neglected by her daughter and her partner have said that they are “disgusted” and “sickened” by the sentence handed down at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court.
Eleanor Joel (38) and Jonathan Costen (40) appeared in the Circuit Court on Monday morning where they were sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years on the grounds that they carry out 240 hours of community service each.
They had been found guilty of the death of Evelyn Joel (58) by neglect in January 2006 at a trial heard in Wexford in December 2012. The landmark case had previously been tried in November 2011 when the jury had failed to reach a verdict. Joel and Costen are the first people in the history of the State to be tried for such an offence.
But family members, speaking to The Echo after the hearing, condemned the sentence, alleging that: “Justice has definitely not been done.”Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said the evidence in the case had been gruesome and upsetting and had painted an “almost medieval” picture of neglect. He added that the fault in this case was Joel and Costen’s failure to call for help, stating this was “not rocket science, even for the accused.”
He said that the gross negligence had come as a result of the social isolation of Joel and Costen, and said that they were at a basic level of coping with the problems they had. It was a case, he said, that would have merited a prison sentence but decreed instead that community service was a more appropriate penalty and one that would decrease the risk of social isolation for the defendants.
[Full coverage in this week’s Echo]