Pearse McAuley will have to serve an extra two years in prison for beating and stabbing his wife at her home in Cavan in 2014.

The 51-year-old, who spent ten years in prison for the manslaughter of Detective Jerry McCabe in Limerick, was originally jailed for eight years.

Mr. Justice Sean Ryan agreed with the DPP that the suspension of the final four years of Pearse McAuley’s twelve year sentence was “excessive”.

He said the court felt the sentencing judge erred in principle by suspending what he believed to a figure twice that of the appropriate allowance.

Pearse McAuley was drunk when he called over to Pauline Tully’s home to see their two young boys on the morning of Christmas Eve 2014.

The couple had separated earlier that year.

He subjected her to a brutal two and a half hour attack – during which she was beaten and stabbed 13 times.

Their boys witnessed some of it – a feature that added an “extra dimension of brutality and horror”, according to Mr. Justice Ryan.

McAuley again apologised to his wife, who wasn’t in court today, and to his own family for the shame he’s brought on them.

A fresh sentence of 12 years with just the final two suspended was then handed down.

Our Courts Correspondent Frank Greaney reports: