A man who assaulted his then girlfriend over a prolonged period, held a blade to her throat and sent her threats from prison to drop the charges has been jailed for six years.
Patrick Byrne (28), formerly of Cooleven Close, Cloverhill Road, Dublin, has 44 convictions and was jailed for 33 months in November last year for striking a man with a bike saddle during an unprovoked assault.
Byrne has four previous convictions for assault causing harm as well as others for theft, domestic violence, drugs and threat to kill offences, Garda Natasha Martin told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court previously.
Judge Pauline Codd on Monday handed down a six-year jail term for the offences, which is not to commence until next March, when the sentence Byrne is serving is spent.
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The judge noted from a probation report that while Byrne “does express some remorse”, he lacks insight and this is something he needs to further address.
The court heard that Byrne assaulted his then partner several times in the course of a two-day period in February 2024, whipping her with a broom handle, holding a Stanley blade to her throat and threatening to slit her throat, kicking and hitting her, smashing up the house and upending a wardrobe, causing a television to fall on her.
He repeatedly told the woman he would kill her, screamed abuse at her, spat in her face and closed the blinds in the house so no one could see in.
The woman could not escape as Byrne had both sets of house keys and had locked the door. She eventually managed to get out when he fell asleep and she was able to get the keys. She ran to a neighbour’s house, from where an ambulance and gardaí were called. Byrne was arrested at a later date.
He pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing harm, one count of production of a broom handle in the course of a dispute and one count of making a threat to kill at an address in Clondalkin. A number of other counts were taken into consideration. The offences occurred on February 11th and 12th, 2024.
While in custody, Byrne sent text messages and made calls to the woman from two different phone numbers. The court heard the texts started in a loving nature, with talk of reconciliation, but then became threatening after Byrne found out the woman had started a new relationship.
He urged the woman to drop the charges against him, calling her a “snake” and a “dirty rat”.
“You drop them charges or you’re going to have a dirty scar for the rest of your life,” he wrote in one message.
Byrne pleaded guilty to one count of threatening a witness in criminal proceedings on dates between April 11th and May 20th, 2024. The woman reported Byrne to the Garda in July 2024. There was no victim impact statement before the court.
The judge observed on the last date that Byrne appeared to be “amused” by the text messages as they were read out in court, to which he replied “no” from the dock.
Mark Lynam, defending, said Byrne started taking drugs at a young age and his life spiralled when he was a teenager after he discovered his biological father was a different person to the man he considered his father.
Mr Lynam said Byrne and the complainant were in a relationship for about two years and it was “toxic”, “chaotic” and “volatile” with both of them abusing drugs and alcohol.
Byrne is remorseful and upset about his actions, counsel said.
The judge said Byrne “clearly has horrendous anger issues”, noting the level of violence he carried out on the woman.
She said the aggravating factors included that some of the offending happened in the injured party’s home, the level of violence, the nature of the violence in that he spit in her face, used threats in the course of the abuse and called her “all sorts of despicable names”.
The judge also noted he produced a Stanley knife holding it to her throat and said “knife for life”.
