Victim ‘tossed around like a doll’

A Co Cork man who imprisoned and assaulted his ex-partner over a period of up to two hours, making her believe she was going to die, was yesterday sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, with the last two years suspended.

Michael McDonnell, aged 27, from 10 Sandfield Terrace, Mallow, had pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to assault, causing harm, to Zoe McDermott at his home on January 20/21, as well as falsely imprisoning and threatening to kill or cause her serious harm.

Det Sgt Michael Corbett said the pairwere in a relationship which ended in December 2014. However, after a phonecall she agreed to bring dog food to McDonnell’s house after 11pm on the date of the attack.

“They chatted about different things. She was planning to go to Barcelona that coming weekend. When she came into the house he turned the key in the door behind her,” said the garda.

“All of a sudden he attacked her, punched her in the face, knocked her back on the couch. Over the next one and a half to two hours she was subjected to a very serious assault. She was beaten about the head, stamped on, a sheet was put over her head. She had a real fear she was going to die.

“She was tossed around the room like a rag doll. She tried to get out a few times and failed. This made the accused more angry.”

Wanting cigarettes, McDonnell drove her, in her car, to a garage outside Mallow and warned her not to get out. She did, however, and hid in a toilet but he banged on the door and she eventually emerged.

They returned to the house where the attacks resumed, including having a pillow put over her face which caused her to stop breathing and almost pass out. At one stage, the accused — dressed only in his boxer shorts — went to a bedroom and the victim managed to get out and run to a neighbour who brought her to Mallow General Hospital. She was immediately transferred to CUH due to the extent of her injuries.

Gardaí were alerted and McDonnell barricaded himself into his house. A stand-off with gardaí ensued for an hour and a half during which time a trained hos-tage negotiator was at the scene.

Det Sgt Corbett, who knew the accused for years, phoned him and persuaded him to come out.

Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin commended the sergeant for his work. “We are a country that has gone totally overboard with minutiae and bureaucracy but Sgt Corbett stood and used his experience as a guard and used it to the benefit of the accused, the victim and society,” the judge said.

Defence senior counsel Tom Creed said the accused had severe problems with alcohol and drugs and wasdealing with them through counselling in Cork Prison.

McDonnell said: “I am disgusted with myself, to do this to a woman, especially to someone I loved deeply.”

The victim kept some of her family away from her hospital bedside for up to three weeks after the assault, as she was afraid of the shock that would be caused to them by seeing her injuries.