"I was afraid he could kill me": Judge jails man for 'appalling' abuse of wife

A wife whose face was beaten ‘black, blue and purple’ by her husband has told a court “I know now I have no ‘boss’ or no one beating me or torturing me for my money”.

At Ennis District Court, the Gort woman outlined the history of domestic violence suffered at the hands of her 39 year old husband before Judge Patrick Durcan jailed the man for nine months for the assault causing harm of his wife on March 4th last year at Ballylennan, Gort in south Galway.

Judge Durcan said that the maximum sentence he could impose on the Gort man was 12 months and he had to take into account the guilty plea.

Judge Durcan said that the accused had carried out a ‘horrible’ assault on his wife in front of their children.

Judge Durcan said that the man's treatment of his wife on the date was “appalling”.

Judge Durcan said that the couple’s little children will be ‘scarred for life’ after what they saw “and will require major intervention to get them back on board”.

Judge Durcan said that he has seen photos of the victim after the assault and said that her face was left ‘black, blue and purple’.

The couple are members of the traveller community and Judge Durcan said that traveller representative groups needed to inculcate a different attitude within traveller society when it comes to respecting other people, relationships and women and children.

Judge Durcan imposed the prison term after he read out a victim impact statement from the wife - the accused pleaded guilty to the assault charge before the court but his solicitor, Daragh Hassett said that there were other allegations in the victim impact statement that his client didn't accept.

Recalling the assault, the mother of five said: “He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me down and kept punching, punching, punching me.

Generic and unrelated image of domestic violence

She added: “I could see the children screaming, but I couldn’t hear them. This had happened uncountable times before, he is a very angry man.

“This has been the way it was since I married him. The week leading up to the beating he stabbed me twice.

“When I would fall down, he would beat me and beat me and it wouldn’t stop. I had big lumps all over my head. He always beat me on the head.

“I was afraid he could kill me. There were weapons. I had numbness in my head and confusion. This went on for a few weeks at a time, maybe a few months. No one should live a life with those beatings.

“My youngest two children 2 and 4 and my oldest daughter were there that day. Children shouldn’t have to see that. One daughter woke up a lot during the night with nightmares for months - even the baby said that ‘I don’t want to go back’.

She added: “When I was with him I was getting paid for all five children and he said that he had a bill for drugs and my children’s money was all used to pay his bill. If I didn’t give him my money he would be torturing me.

She said: “He would leave himself and the kids hungry to just get the drugs.”

“Since the assault, I am living in a refuge. I am happy to be away from the violence. I can never go back to Gort, never.

“I have no home but I finally got away from him. I am very happy to be alive in the refuge and my children with me.

“This man has caused a lot of chaos for the children. They are beautiful children that deserve life just like anyone else - I’m so proud of my children and me - the children are very confused, they do no understand the situation.

She concluded: “He will not stop. I am happy to be away from the violence. It will get better now.”

Solicitor for the accused, Daragh Hassett said that his client has undertaken to stay away from his wife.

Mr Hassett said that his client has a short fuse and has undergone an anger management course to address this.