Man who subjected his former partner to verbal abuse and violence jailed for nine months

Defendant had pleaded guilty to coercive control and assault causing harm

Court heard accused, who cannot be named, spat in his ex-partner's face, called her a fat bitch and degraded her with all kinds of behaviour. Picture: Dan Linehan

A 51-year-old man coercively controlled his former partner with a litany of insulting, degrading and sometimes violent actions, once tipping a dustpan of dirt on top of her head after she dressed up to meet her mother to shop for a wedding dress.

On Thursday, he was sentenced to 18 months, with half of it suspended, by Judge Sinéad Behan at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. A similar concurrent sentence was imposed on him for assault causing harm to her.

“Coercive control is an invidious type of crime involving control of the victim. As the injured party said, while bruises may disappear, psychological damage can be long-lasting. It is behaviour which is designed to control and intimidate and degrade the injured party," Judge Behan said.

“He has written a letter of apology. I note he has engaged in therapy… I have to take into consideration society’s condemnation of this kind of behaviour and the principle of deterrence has to be taken into consideration.” 

The judge directed that €10,000 of the defendant’s bail money be sent to the injured party so she could engage with counselling and move on with her life.

Detective Garda Paul Cogan testified the defendant was also gaslighting her, claiming she was an alcoholic liar with mental health problems during the period in question.

Det Garda Cogan said the accused, who cannot be named by order of the court, spat in her face, called her a fat bitch and degraded her with all kinds of behaviour.

The detective outlined a number of disturbing incidents and repeated patterns of behaviour:

• He said the accused sat in the car on the day she got out of the maternity hospital after having a child and she had to buy groceries in the supermarket while she was still bleeding;
• When they got home with the newborn infant, the defendant said he was tired and took to bed for a period of a fortnight;
• During the coercive control, she would wake in the morning to find he had emptied bins on the floor and he would punish her for not cleaning the house to his satisfaction;
• The detective said the defendant weaponised their child to say the mother was “an evil bitch”;
• Det Garda Cogan said she was in constant fear of him when they were living together and that he would regularly ring her in work and reduce her to tears by the verbal abuse on the phone;
• In physical terms, the assault causing harm involved punching her and pulling clumps of hair out of her head, and leaving her with bruises to her face and a chipped tooth — and there was photographic evidence of this;
• The accused locked her out of the house on one occasion and set a timer for how long she would have to wait on the doorstep, and if she complained he would re-set the timer.

Judge Behan noted from the defence evidence and submissions by Tom Creed, senior counsel, the defendant had already taken steps to address coercive and violent tendencies and now had insight into his offending behaviour. 

Mr Creed said the injured party and society would be best served by having the defendant continue with his employment and with rehabilitation. He said the plea of guilty to coercive control and assault causing harm spared the injured party a trial.

Judge Behan said this was significant as a trial would have subjected the injured party to even more trauma.

The coercive control on which he was sentenced dated from January 2019 to May 2021, and the assault causing harm occurred on March 14, 2021.

In her victim impact statement, the 42-year-old said her freedom, dignity and peace of mind were stripped from her.

The judge noted from background reports the defendant, who had no previous convictions, had a troubled childhood where he was exposed to violence, neglect and emotional trauma.