Central Criminal Court
The judge said Joseph Butler (43) demonstrated a “callousness” by leaving the apartment after plunging a knife 11.5cm into Paula Canty’s chest.
A MAN WHO stabbed 31-year-old mother-of-two Paula Canty in the chest and left her to die on an apartment floor in Mallow, Co Cork has been jailed for 10 years.
Joseph Butler (43) was originally charged with the murder of Ms Canty at an apartment in the Belfry, Bridewell Lane, on 3 January 2025.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) subsequently accepted his plea of guilty to manslaughter.
Ms Canty died of a single knife wound to the chest. She was due to celebrate her 32nd birthday just three days after the killing.
Butler, who is a native of Midleton in Co Cork, initially told gardai he “didn’t feel guilty” about what had occurred as it was “an accident.”
At a sentencing hearing in the Central Criminal Court in Cork today, Judge Eileen Creedon completely dismissed the account of events which Butler had given to gardaí.
She said that his claim that the killing was accidental and arose from a tussle was not in any way consistent with the evidence of the pathologist in the case.
“His account was that he grabbed a knife from her during a struggle and that it was an accident. He indicated that he didn’t feel guilty because it was an accident and he didn’t know she was dead until later when he got a phone call from his niece,” she said.
“The accused’s versions of events were inconsistent with the postmortem and the blood-spatter analysis by forensic scientists. The blood pooling indicates that the deceased bled heavily at that location.”
The judge said Ms Canty was a vulnerable person, and was much smaller and physically weaker that Joseph Butler.
“It is not credible that she posed a danger to him that required him to plunge a knife 11.5cm into her chest. He left the apartment and there was no call to the emergency services. This demonstrates a callousness.”
Judge Creedon imposed a sentence of 12 years with the last two years suspended with the condition that Butler keeps the peace and is of good behaviour for two years after his release from prison.
She said that she could only imagine the grief and the hole left in the lives of the family of the deceased following the loss of their loved one.
She praised members of the family for their powerful victim impact statements, which were previously read into evidence.
Darragh Canty, a brother of the deceased, said that it broke his heart that Ms Canty suffered such a brutal death.
“It eats me alive that I could not protect her from that monster of a man. She was left in a pool of her own blood just three days before her birthday,” he said.
Her sister Rianna Canty said that they had expected to be organising a birthday party for Ms Canty, but ended up having to plan her funeral. She said Ms Canty had been denied the opportunity of seeing her two children mature in to adults.
Sinead Canty said that her “beloved darling daughter” was stolen from the family in the “prime of her youth.” She stated that Ms Canty had a “soft, pleasant nature” and a creative disposition.
She excelled in all things artistic and was skilled at flower arranging. She added that her pair had a great bond that her life had changed forever following the seismic loss.
Ms Canty was in a relationship with Michael John Butler, who was the brother of the accused, at the time of her death. Joseph Butler, who has a long history of alcohol addiction, lived with the couple in the apartment in which Ms Canty died.
Butler told gardaí he had been fighting with his brother, Michael John and Ms Canty Paula “bad words” when she pulled a knife.
He claimed that she was injured in a “struggle” between them and that she was “grand” when he left the apartment. He stated that he later learned of her death from his niece.