Courts

Former garda Mark Doyle sentenced to six years in prison over assaults on wife and stepsons

Meav Doyle described her abusive husband as ‘a monster in our home’

Meav McLoughlin-Doyle pictured speaking to media outside Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, following the sentence hearing of Mark Doyle. Photograph: Collins Courts

Conor Lally
Fri Mar 15 2024 - 13:52

A former garda has been sentenced to six years imprisonment after pleading guilty to six charges of assault causing harm to his wife and his two stepsons.

Mark Doyle (38) resigned from the Garda last year just before pleading guilty on the morning his trial was due to start.

His was sentenced on Friday by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after the details of his crimes, against his wife Meav Doyle and her two eldest sons, were first outlined at a sentencing hearing on Thursday.

Judge Nolan said while the “global” sentence he was considering was 10 years, Doyle had pleaded guilty, had expressed remorse and believed in time “this man could clearly change his life”.

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However, Doyle had been “aggressive and violent” over a period of many years, creating an “oppressive” home for Ms Doyle and her four children and they still “bear the scars”.

He added for reasons only known to Doyle “he couldn’t control his temper and it seems he blamed his wife for his own behaviour”.

He had caused “trauma” and a number of the violent assaults were committed in front of the children. As a result, he imposed a sentence of five years and one year on two of the counts, to be served consecutively, and took the other counts into consideration.

Maev Doyle spoke to the media after former garda Mark Doyle was sentenced to six years in prison for assaulting her and her sons over the course of 11 years.

Doyle, who was stationed in Ronanstown in west Dublin until resigning from the force, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last October to four charges of assault causing harm to Meav Doyle on dates between May 8th, 2010 and August 28th, 2019.

He further pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to a male on September 3rd, 2017 and assault causing harm to a second male on unknown dates between 2008 and 2009. Both of those young male victims are sons of Ms Doyle’s from a previous relationship.

Doyle was described by his wife as “a respected member of the community but a monster in our home”, who subjected her and her four children – two of whom she had with Doyle – to a litany of violent acts and coercive controlling behaviour.

[ ‘A monster in our home’: Ex-garda led wife by her hair ‘like a dog’ during decade of abuse, court told ]

In her victim impact statement, which she gave from the witness box on Thursday, Ms Doyle said when she met Mark Doyle, a former member of the Defence Forces who joined the Garda in 2009, she was “ambitious, confident and outgoing”. But by the time their relationship ended, she was “a shell of myself” and “would jump at noises”.

She was still dealing with a tsunami of knock-on harmful effects of her marriage and its break-up. The constant battle to “cope” was “exhausting” and she and her children were now “constantly on the back foot”.

Doyle sought to “quash” any suggestion he was an abuser by arriving at a school meeting in full Garda uniform and in a patrol car, Ms Doyle told the court.

During some of the violence, which occurred between 2008 and 2019, she twice suffered perforated ear drums and was kicked and punched in the body and head, including when she was pregnant. One of her sons was punched by Doyle and another was shot in the backside by Doyle while playing with an airsoft gun, powered by a gas cylinder and loaded with pellets.

[ Wife of former garda says she was ‘extremely intimidated’ by his job as he abused her ]

The court was told Doyle, who grew up in Carlow in a family where his father was a violent alcoholic, met Ms Doyle in March 2007 when she was on a hen party in Carlow. Her previous relationship, with the father of her two eldest children, was ending at the time and she began a new relationship with Doyle later in 2007.

She became pregnant and she began sharing her home in Celbridge, Co Kildare with him in early 2008, and they married in 2012. The campaign of violence in the family home in Celbridge continued for over a decade.

In September 2019, Ms Doyle applied for an interim barring order, also seeking help from Women’s Aid and then securing a full barring order before going to the Garda and making a complaint in the spring of 2020.

Doyle was investigated by the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, with the inquiry led by Det Insp Adrian Kinsella. He was suspended from the Garda as that inquiry progressed until his resignation last year.

The court was told Doyle was in a new relationship and was being financially supported by that woman, who knew of his history and was present in court for his sentencing. He also worked part-time.

Conor Lally

Conor Lally

Conor Lally is Security and Crime Editor of The Irish Times

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