Man threatened to “rip” the head off his former partner and caused their four-month-old baby to fall from his buggy

By Eimear Dodd

A man who threatened to rip the head off his former partner and caused their four-month-old baby to fall from his buggy has been jailed for three and a half years.

The 25-year-old pleaded guilty to criminal damage, making threats to kill or cause serious harm, assault, and child cruelty on a date in January 2022.

He can’t be named to protect the child’s anonymity.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the victim and the Dublin man were previously in a relationship, which ended before this incident occurred.

They had a son together, who was just over four months old at the time.

An investigating garda told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, today that the victim had a protection order against the man.

She was in her ground floor apartment on this particular morning when she heard a tap on the patio door.

She told the man he couldn’t come inside as he was intoxicated.

He asked if he could come in for 30 seconds and she again refused, telling him to go home and sleep it off.

The man asked her to open a window and she did, then he tried unsuccessfully to climb in.

He kicked the patio door open and the woman ran to the front door, while he followed her.

He said he’d “rip” her head off her shoulders.

He then grabbed her hair and slapped her face several times to try to force her back into the apartment but she resisted.

The man then put their baby in his buggy, but didn’t strap him in.

The victim asked the man to put a hat on their baby as it was cold.

The court heard that the baby had helped to calm the man in the past and the woman wasn’t initially concerned.

She followed when the man walked away with the buggy.

The man stumbled twice at the end of the road, causing the buggy to fall forward.

The baby fell out, injuring his head.

He picked up the baby and initially refused to give him to the victim, but later handed him over.

The man told her not to call emergency services, saying she, her father and brother would be dead if gardai arrived.

When she called for an ambulance, the man told her to hang up and didn’t listen when she asked him to put a blanket on the baby.

There was a disagreement about who would go with the baby in the ambulance.

The man grabbed her hair, then kicked her across the legs.

When emergency services arrived, the man showed her the key to her apartment and said he would “jam it” in her neck if she said anything to gardai.

He was arrested and was deemed unfit for interview for six hours due to his level of intoxication.

The woman sustained no injuries during the incident.

The baby was taken to hospital as a precaution, but suffered no lasting effects.

Photos of the baby’s injuries were shown to the court.

The woman declined to make a victim impact statement, the court heard.

The man has 45 previous convictions including five for criminal damage, four for assault and one for breach of a safety order, which occurred eight days before this incident.

He was also on bail at the time of this offending and has been in custody since his arrest, having served sentences on unrelated charges.

The investigating garda agreed with defence counsel that the man was heavily intoxicated at the time and there is no suggestion that he set out to hurt his son but he was reckless.

It was further accepted that the man kicked the patio door once, didn’t cause other damage within the apartment and the woman didn’t believe his threats towards her family members.

The garda also agreed that the man had a chaotic upbringing and addiction issues.

Defence counsel told the court her client offered a sincere apology to his former partner and gardai for his behaviour.

While he has limited memory of the day, he fully accepts the victim’s account and is appalled by his actions.

Counsel asked the court to take into account that the couple had been co-parenting successfully prior to this incident and the child is brought regularly to visit him in custody, where he is an enhanced prisoner.

The man wishes to address his addiction in order to do better for his son, the court heard.

He has some work history and an offer of employment upon his release.

Imposing sentence, Judge Elma Sheahan noted that the incident took place in the victim’s family home where she and the baby “ought to feel safe”.

The judge said it was an aggravating factor that the offending occurred in the presence of a young  baby, who was also put at risk by the man’s actions.

She noted that the court was taking a breach of a court order into consideration, but said it was “very serious” that this was the second time the man had breached an order.

She noted that it is also aggravating that the offence took place in the context of a previous intimate relationship and the impact on the victim.

While there was no victim impact statement, the judge said the “facts speak for themselves” and the court considered the man’s moral culpability to be high.

The judge said she took into consideration the mitigating features and his personal circumstances.

Judge Sheahan said the threats were “indicative of how he felt he could intimidate” the victim and that a safety order was in place.

She imposed a sentence of three and a half years on this charge.

In relation to the child cruelty charge, the judge handed him a sentence of 20 months.

She said “thankfully, the child did not suffer significant injury”, but photos showed the man’s “failure to take any care for the child at the time”.

Judge Sheahan also imposed sentences of two years and nine months for criminal damage and five months for the assault charge.

All sentences are to run concurrently and the judge directed the man be given credit for any time served exclusively on these matters.