Man jailed for assaulting partner on day of baby’s death

By Claire Henry

A man who assaulted his former partner on the day their baby died and on two further occasions has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the man (32), who can’t be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault causing harm against a female on dates between July and September 2023 in a Co Dublin suburb.

He has 29 previous convictions, which include convictions of assault and endangerment of the same injured party.

Passing sentence on Thursday, Judge Orla Crowe said what he did “to the mother of his child who had just lost her four-month-old child is inexcusable”. She said the injured party was “lying in her bed upset, and he grabbed her by the head and thumped her. This is a woman who has just lost her child”.

Judge Crowe said, “The day they buried their child, in front of others, he fired bottles and plates at her”.

The judge said she had seen images of the injuries that the woman sustained and said the woman “was afraid and had to stay in a woman’s refuge”. She said, “I don’t hear any real expression of remorse” from the defendant.

Judge Crowe said that these were “nasty, heartless attacks on his partner” and they were “degrading”. She sentenced him to three years on each of the three counts to run concurrently and backdated to when he went into custody on this matter.

A local garda told Karl Moran, BL, prosecuting, that the defendant picked the injured party up on September 7, 2023, from her friend’s house, and they went back to his home. When they arrived, the injured party went to a back bedroom, locked the door, and began to pack a bag. The defendant kicked the door in and then began to kick the injured party in the head and legs.

The court heard the woman fled the house but was tripped up by the man, and she fell to the ground, where he again kicked her in the head and legs. The woman made her way across the road and later attended Blanchardstown Hospital.

The garda said that a statement was taken from the injured party the following day, where she outlined two other incidents that had previously occurred between her and the defendant. The woman described how, on the day their baby died, the defendant came into the bedroom, grabbed her by the head and, “thumped her”, and then pinned her down to the bed. 

The final incident happened days later when the injured party and defendant returned to his house after their baby’s funeral. The defendant threw bottles and plates at the woman and hit her with a bottle of bleach, but she managed to “dodge” being hit by the plates. The woman told the gardai that there were other people present in the house, and one of them stopped the man from “having a burst” at her.

 The court heard that the man was arrested on September 16, 2023, and questioned. During hs interview, he denied all matters put to him. He has been in custody since.

 The injured party, in this case, declined to make a victim impact statement.

The garda agreed with Paul Comiskey O’Keeffe, BL, defending that his client came from a tragic background and was taken into foster care when he was four years old.

The garda agreed with counsel that his client had dependency issues with drugs and alcohol and that he has had a close family bereavement while in custody.

Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe said that his client had run up a drug debt when he was younger, and as a result, he became involved in criminality.

Counsel handed letters into the court, one of which was from a bereavement counsellor who described how the defendant found his child and attempted to do CPR. The letter also said the defendant had survived a very difficult life.

He asked the court to take into account the man’s personal circumstances, his guilty plea, and that he is someone with promise, but he does require help and asked the court to structure a sentence to include rehabilitation.