By Claire Henry and Isabel Hayes
A man who climbed in a window, beat his former partner in front of their children and then failed to turn up to court for his sentencing has been jailed for two years and three months.
The 33-year-old man pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to a charge of assault causing harm to his former partner on March 28, 2021, at her house in Dublin. A sentence hearing was held in May 2024 and the case was adjourned for finalisation to October 2024, but he failed to turn up.
The man, who can’t be named to protect the identity of the children in the case, has 26 previous convictions, all from the District Court. These include assault, public order, failure to appear, and road traffic matters.
The court heard the man was arrested two weeks ago and has been in custody since. Defence counsel said his client failed to show up on the day of his sentence finalisation because his car broke down, but that there was no excuse for him failing to turn up to court on subsequent dates.
Passing sentence, Judge Orla Crowe said the court took a very serious view of the offence in question – “An attack on a former intimate partner in the presence of their children.”
“How frightening and destabilising for them,” the judge said.
She set a headline sentence of three years and reduced this to two years and three months, taking mitigating factors into account.
Garda Colm Randle previously told the court that the injured party was at home with her children on the day in question when she heard a knock on the door. She then heard banging on her sitting room window and saw the man – her former partner and the father of her two children. He was calling her a “slut” and a “tramp” and shouting: “I know there is someone in there”.
The man then climbed through the open sitting room window. The woman ran to a bedroom and was in the process of climbing out the window when the defendant grabbed her and threw her onto the bed. He then punched her up to 10 times and continued to verbally abuse her.
The woman thought she was going to die. She could also see and hear her two-year-old child in the bedroom during the attack. When the man left, the woman climbed out the window and ran for help.
Gardai were alerted and while she was waiting for them, she saw the defendant walking in the vicinity with their two children. The woman hid until gardai arrived and gave them a statement. The gardai photographed the woman’s injuries, and a book of images was handed into the court. The man was later detained and interviewed.
The woman had two cut lips, bruising to her arms, pain in her jaw and bumps on her head.
A victim impact statement was read to the court on behalf of the woman, which outlined that she was unable to attend work for a few days in the aftermath due to her injuries and that she was “afraid to walk around the area with my two children in case he would come after me”.
She said that she is still petrified of him and after this incident, she bought two guard dogs and changed her locks.
Gda Randle agreed with Keith Spencer BL, defending, that the incident might have been borne out of his client not letting the injured party move on from their relationship.
Mr Spencer said it was his instruction that his client saw a man in the house on the day in question and that this man had fled from the house. The garda replied: “We have footage from the area, and we did not see a male, and the injured party did not allude to one being there.”
The garda agreed with counsel that there was no medical report of the injuries sustained by the injured party, and she made a full physical recovery.
Mr Spencer said that his client’s previous convictions are all from the District Court and alcohol played a role in many of these convictions.
The court heard the man is in employment and wants to return to education. He said he no longer drinks and is in a happy relationship.
He said this incident occurred at the “tail end of their relationship”, and the defendant continues to be a good father to his children and supports them. A letter of apology was handed into the court.
Defence counsel previously said the man was willing to give €2,500 as a token of his remorse, but the court heard he did not have any money in court as he lost his job late last year.