Man jailed for life after leaving woman with brain damage in hammer attack at her home

Ms Cunningham will never be able to live on her own again (Picture: ncjMedia Ltd)

A ‘savage’ criminal who left a woman with catastrophic injuries by trying to murder her for money in her own home has been jailed for life.

Ross Clancy, 40, repeatedly smashed 65-year-old stranger Niamh Michelle Cunningham in the head and face with a claw hammer, causing severe brain damage.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that she remains in hospital six months after the attack in Elswick, Newcastle, in which her partner, Jonathan Hall, 60, was also brutally attacked by Clancy.

The attack took place during a three-day violent crime spree last November, during which he also carried out a series of robberies and beat a female friend with an iron.

Clancy, who already had a long history of 76 offences and had be...