A Dublin man has been jailed for three years after he beat his girlfriend so badly she needed surgery to insert plates and bolts into her leg to repair the damage.
Stephen Walsh (39), of Portland Close, Portland Row, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to Maria Sunner at their home on Poplar Row, Ballybough on November 24th, 2013.
He has 32 previous convictions including for robbery, handling stolen goods and breaching a barring order taken out by the victim.
Judge Martin Nolan said the attack involved punching, pulling, dragging, kicking and stamping on Ms Sunner while she lay on the ground.
Surgical intervention
He said her injuries were serious and she needed surgical intervention to put plates and bolts into her knee. He noted she has also been left with a disfiguring scar.
Judge Nolan backdated the three-year jail term to when Walsh went into custody last June.
Garda Declan Crushell told Kerida Naidoo BL, prosecuting, that a row began between Walsh and Ms Sunner when he tried to leave their home with a box which she said had money in it that she was saving for the children for Christmas.
Ms Sunner was trying to get the box from him when he punched her and knocked her back against the front door.
Walsh then grabbed Ms Sunner’s hair and dragged her into the sitting room where she said Walsh was “kicking, booting and boxing me”.
Begged to stop
She said she begged him to stop as her niece was standing nearby holding the couple’s daughter in her arms. Walsh then left but Ms Sunner followed him in an attempt to get the money from him.
She later told gardaí he then picked her up by the hips and slammed her into the ground, “like you would see in wrestling”, before he continued to kick her while her leg was pushed up against a balcony railing. A neighbour then came to her assistance and the assault ended.
She was taken to hospital, where she underwent surgery and remained for five days. A victim impact report was handed into court but not read out.
Walsh was arrested and later suggested there was “an element of self-defence” during what he claimed was a disagreement. He later claimed Ms Sunner had slipped and fallen.
Crack cocaine
Anne Marie Lawlor BL, defending, told Judge Nolan that although her client is not using it as an excuse for his behaviour that day, he was abusing crack cocaine to “an extraordinary extent”.
She said he had written a letter of apology to Ms Sunner in which he said their relationship had come to an end “over my cowardly actions”.
He said the amount of undue stress he caused her and his children is something he will have to learn to live with every day.
He wished her a good recovery “both physically and emotionally” and hoped that one day she will accept how truly sorry he is.
Ms Lawlor said Walsh has used his time in custody well, completing a number of courses and a sponsored run.
“He has put his head down and done whatever he needed in terms of tackling his rehabilitation. His whole world has been turned on its head,” counsel submitted.