Coercive control: Conspiracy theorist's reign of terror over family

Man told daughter chopping up her mammy would be 'as easy as chopping a tomato', court heard

Paul Harkin, 49, outside Galway court.

A man waged a "regime of fear and terror" against his now former wife, telling their nine-year-old daughter at one point that chopping up her mammy would be “as easy as chopping a tomato”, before telling her and her seven-year-old brother on another occasion how he would dismember their mammy’s body and put it in a box if she didn’t behave and do as she was told.

Derry native Paul Harkin, aged 49, with a former address at Kilchreest, Loughrea, Co Galway, pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last January to knowingly and persistently engaging in behaviour that was controlling or coercive on a date unknown between June 24 and August 13 last year at an unknown location, which had a serious effect on a woman who is or was his spouse, and the behaviour was such that a reasonable person would consider it likely to have a serious effect on a relevant person, contrary to Section 39 (1) and (3) of the Domestic Violence Act, 2018.