Hell hath no fury like a woman betrayed, says judge

A woman who found her partner in another woman’s bedroom, ended up assaulting the woman her partner was with, a court has heard.

Sabrina O’Connell of the Glen in Kinsale barged into the other woman’s home after her partner had failed to come home.

Bandon District Court heard that Ms O’Connell’s partner had been out earlier on July 12 last in Kinsale and returned to Ms O’Connell’s home at one point, and she gave him money to bring back a takeaway.

Ms O’Connell, 36, went looking for him when he didn’t come back and didn’t respond to phone calls.

She was then told by someone else that her partner had been seen in the company of another woman.

The court heard that at 1.30am that morning she entered the woman’s house when the woman’s son opened the door.

On entering the bedroom she spotted her partner and the woman. A laptop was damaged, the contents of a wine glass were thrown at the woman by Ms O’Connell and the woman also got a black eye in the assault.

The case went before the court on a number of occasions since and was concluded yesterday, with Judge James McNulty describing the circumstances as “most unusual”.

The court had previously heard in mitigation that Ms O’Connell’s partner had been, in the judge’s words, “playing away from home”, but that the female and her son had both been “traumatised” by the incident and had attended counselling. The court had previously been shown photographs of the female victim’s black eye following the assault.

Ms O’Connell’s solicitor, Tony Greenway, said his client was sober on the night of the incident but she had not renewed a prescription for medication she had been taking and without this she had been feeling anxious. He said his client was “mortified” and had never done anything like it before. Apart from a road traffic offence she had lived a “blameless life”, Mr Greenway said, and was employed and from a supportive family.

Judge McNulty said: “In some ways I am inclined to think that this woman is more sinned against than sinned. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and in this case hell hath no fury like a woman betrayed.”

Ms O’Connell had already paid €400 in compensation for repair of a laptop that was damaged on the night

That criminal damage charge was taken into consideration by the Judge, who convicted Ms O’Connell of trespassing, and fined her €500 — money which Judge McNulty said would go some way towards helping pay for the counselling undertaken by the victim in the case.

On the assault charge, Ms O’Connell was given a conditional discharge under the Probation Act. The judge also heard that the services of the Probation Service were not required as Ms O’Connell would be able to supervise herself.