Courts

‘Our safe space became a danger zone’: Man jailed for assaulting former partner during frenzied outburst

Defendant (36) broke into woman’s home and attacked her after earlier grabbing her steering wheel and pulling car across traffic

Judge James O’Donohue noted aggravating factors including that the man was on bail at the time and was in an intimate relationship with the victim. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh
Judge James O’Donohue noted aggravating factors including that the man was on bail at the time and was in an intimate relationship with the victim. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh
David O’Sullivan
Eimear Dodd
Tue Apr 30 2024 - 14:01

A Dublin man has been jailed for assaulting his former partner during a frenzied outburst at her home which has left the woman feeling “fearful” and “traumatised”.

The 36-year-old, who cannot be named to protect his victim’s anonymity, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to counts of criminal damage, endangerment, assault and trespass on January 5th, 2021.

The man has 79 previous convictions. He was previously convicted of assault causing harm and two counts of criminal damage for which he was handed a three-year prison sentence with six months suspended. He has an earliest release date of next March.

The court heard the injured party in the earlier trial was also the victim in this case and that the man was on bail for the previous offences at the time of this offending.

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Imposing sentence on Tuesday, Judge James O’Donohue said this was a “very bad assault” which had a considerable effect on the victim, leaving her “fearful” and “traumatised”.

He noted aggravating factors including that the man was on bail at the time and was in an intimate relationship with the victim. The judge said mitigation included the man’s expressions of remorse, his background and the contents of a psychological report.

Judge O’Donohue imposed a sentence of 18 months on the count of endangerment, to run consecutively to the sentence he is currently serving. He noted that the man has already served six months in relation to this case and directed he be given credit for this. The remaining charges are to be taken into consideration.

An investigating garda gave told an earlier hearing that the victim was running an errand at a local supermarket with the man on the day in question. At some point, the victim abandoned her shopping and returned to the car. The man followed her and got into the passenger side.

“There was a verbal argument, and I think it got heated,” the witness said.

While inside the car, the man punched the visor and windshield, causing €1,676 worth of damage. The woman asked him to leave, but he refused. The court heard that the woman said she would drive him to a local garda station if he did not get out of the vehicle.

While the woman was driving, the man grabbed the car’s steering wheel, pulling the vehicle across several driving lanes. The woman told gardaí her “legs and arms went to jelly at that point” and she again told him to leave the car.

Paramedics driving by observed the car which was by then stationary and blocking two lanes. They approached and the victim told them that the man had pulled the steering wheel, causing her to lose control of the car. The paramedics called the gardaí, at which point the man fled.

Evidence was given that when the victim got home, she locked all the doors and windows and sent the man a text saying not to come. However, he jumped over the back wall of the house later that night and pulled the door open.

The garda told Tessa White BL, prosecuting, that the man grabbed the woman by the side of the face and pushed her to the ground. The woman’s child came into the room and screamed. The court heard that the man called her derogatory names and said she was “the worst mother in the world”.

The man told the woman it was her fault that the earlier incident happened because she had changed the password to her phone, which had made him paranoid. The court heard the man left the house but then came back in tears and said he had nowhere else to go.

No medical evidence in relation to the victim was provided to the court.

At a later date, gardaí told the injured party to arrange to meet the man at a cafe. However, gardaí arrived rather than her and the man was arrested.

In a victim impact statement read out by Ms White, the injured party described the consequences of that day.

“I don’t trust men, aside from my family,” she said.

The woman said she suffers from PTSD and flashbacks that cause her to have panic attacks. She said “my house stopped feeling like my home” and that “our safe space became a danger zone”.

Morgan Shelley BL, defending, said the man was taken to prison “with the attitude of someone who will do everything he can do to reform himself”. He said his client has attended classes on anger management, alternatives to violence and managing emotions.