Man who used hammer to smash door of Cork house where family were sleeping jailed for seven years

A hammer was used to smash through the door of a house where a couple and their two children were sleeping, but the man put his body against the front door to hold off the three men who were trying to force entry, a court has heard.

Yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Malcolm Kelly of Collageela, Kanturk, Co Cork, has been sentenced by Judge Helen Boyle to seven years and seven months, with the last seven months suspended.

Detective Garda Martina Drew, who investigated the case, testified that Kelly had 100 previous convictions, including five for burglary, one for robbery, one for carrying a knife, and five for assault causing harm.

Defence senior counsel Ray Boland said the 40-year-old had serious difficulties with substance abuse and pleaded guilty to charges so that a trial by judge and jury was not necessary.

Det Gda Drew said that the incident occurred at around midnight on August 11, 2025, at a house at Lagan Grove in Mayfield.

Malcolm Kelly was originally charged with aggravated burglary, but the prosecution did not proceed with that charge once the defendant pleaded guilty to simple assault, production of a hammer during an incident, making threats to kill, and causing criminal damage to the house.

The pleas to those charges were accepted on the basis that the full facts of the case would be given at the sentencing hearing.

Det Gda Drew said that Malcolm Kelly was one of three men who arrived at the house that night.

The court was told that the men were trying to gain entry by smashing glass panels in and around the front door and reaching in to unlock the door.

During the incident, where the woman was upstairs with her two children phoning the gardaí, several downstairs windows were smashed and a wheelie bin was thrown through the kitchen window.

The woman’s partner armed himself with a hatchet in an effort to fend off the three men who were trying to get into the house, and he swung the hatchet in their direction.

He was hit with a hammer during the incident.

The woman tried to come down the stairs, but went back up because there was so much broken glass around the stairs and floors.

The gardaí arrived on the scene, and Kelly was the only one who was arrested there.

His DNA was also found inside the front door of the house and he was identified as the man who was in possession of the hammer, Det Gda Drew said.