Arsonist jailed for 'appalling attack' on ex-girlfriend

A convicted arsonist who viciously assaulted his ex-girlfriend while on bail for causing €15,000 worth of damage by setting fires at a car dealership has been given a three-year sentence.

Shane McAuley (aged 27) said he “lost the head” after seeing the woman with another man. He dragged her up to the sixth floor of a flat complex by her hair before punching her in the face as he held her by the neck, then headbutted her, and stood on her as she blacked out on the floor.

McAuley will not begin the sentence until June 2011 when he finishes the eight-year sentence with five suspended which was imposed last year for the arson offences.

McAuley, of Kilmahuddrick Lawn, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting the woman causing her harm at Shangan Road, Ballymun on February 23, 2009.

Judge Frank O’Donnell told him “a man who abuses his physical superiority over females won’t get any sympathy”. He imposed a three-year sentence to begin when his present sentence ends in 2011, but suspended the final year on conditions.

Garda Alan Lambe told Mr Paul Carroll BL, prosecuting, that the woman had been in a relationship with McAuley for approximately 18 months but it had ended prior to Christmas 2008.

She had accepted a lift home with the friend of a son that evening and they had been "laughing and messing" before they parted company and she went towards the stairwell of the flat complex where she lived.

She saw McAuley standing there and he shouted at her that she had been hugging and kissing the other man. He pushed and dragged her by the hair up the stairs from the ground floor to the sixth floor as she screamed and shouted.

McAuley then grabbed her by the neck and started to punch her in the face. She fell face first onto the ground and as she lay there he stood on her head, shoulders and “all over her”. The woman blacked out and the next thing she remembered was waking up in hospital.

She said she had feared she was going to be killed during the attack.

She was treated for a broken collar bone and fractured cheek bone at the hospital and later by her GP. Her face was “destroyed with bruising” and her arm was in a sling for a time. She also had injuries to her eyes.

Garda Lambe said the woman received two texts from McAuley afterwards accusing her of lying about who she was with and claiming she was “being cruel to someone who worshipped her”. He said he had been “angry at what she had done” and this motivated the attack.

McAuley was arrested and admitted the assault. He said he had “lost the head” and that she was the “the last person in the world I wanted to hurt”. He told gardaí he had taken the anger he felt in the months since the break-up out on her that night. He admitted standing on her, hitting her, grabbing her hair and headbutting her.

He said at one point he had left her on the sixth floor but heard her calling out in pain and he returned to check on her but instead started hitting her again.

McAuley has 11 previous convictions including one for a serious assault in Scotland. He received an eight-year sentence with the final three years suspended last October after he pleaded guilty to criminal damage of cars at Windsor Road Rathmines, Dublin in December 2005 and at Beaumont Drive, Churchtown, in February 2007.

Mc Auley told gardaí that he was “drunk and just messing” when he burned the cars.

The woman’s victim impact statement outlined how she experiences psychological as well as the physical effects from the attack. She said she suffers panic attacks, nightmares and flashbacks.

Defence counsel, Ms Fiona Murphy BL, said it was an appalling attack and said while he had been drinking he did not offer that as an explanation or excuse. She said he was genuinely remorseful for what he had done.

She said he had begun abusing alcohol in his early 20s and this had started to affect other areas of his life.

Ms Murphy said he had been working as a cleaner in the prison while in custody.