Woman’s ex-partner beat her with vodka bottle

A woman was dragged from a house and beaten by her former partner, then dragged 150 metres down a country lane on her back, lifted over a gate and subjected to a horrific attack in a field.

Jason O’Callaghan, originally from Mallow and now of no fixed address, beat his former partner on every part of her body using a vodka bottle. As she lay bleeding in the field, he told her: “You can bleed to death there, you are not getting me locked up again.”

Six months before the assault, on Jun 2 this year, O’Callaghan was convicted of breaching a barring order in respect of the same victim.

He had previous convictions for assaults.

After this attack in the field, which lasted seven to eight minutes, O’Callaghan, 32, then dragged her back into the house, stripped her naked, put her into a shower and then put her into bed and fell asleep beside her.

Sergeant Paul Ahern said the victim felt she was going to die in the field that night and never see her children again.

However, when O’Callaghan fell asleep she managed to crawl from the bed, crawled out of the room on the floor and called the gardaí.

Sgt Ahern said yesterday when the severely beaten victim was in the ambulance and several gardaí had arrived at the house at Clongeel, Boherbue, Co Cork, the culprit, Jason O’Callaghan was lying in bed asleep.

He denied knowing anything about the assault despite the fact that his jeans, which he still had on, were stained with the victim’s blood.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court it was a chilling case and that one could only admire the mental strength of the victim to come through it.

“This was an absolutely horrendous experience for the woman.

“It was a frantic and frenetic assault with an implement to do as much damage as he could,” the judge said.

He imposed a jail term of three years and four months on O’Callaghan with the last year suspended.