Man found guilty of threatening to cause wife serious harm

A man has been convicted of threatening to cause his wife serious harm on two occasions as their marriage was breaking down.

The jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin will resume their deliberations on Thursday on allegations against the 42-year old man of rape, assault causing harm and threats to kill or cause harm.

The jury convicted him of threatening to cut his wife’s face open with a cleaver in their kitchen on May 25th, 2014. He denied making the threat and claimed he only had a butter knife in his hand as he was making their son a sandwich.

The 11-day trial heard the couple’s marriage was under stress and the man was unhappy about the woman’s successful career and the amount of attention she was giving to their infant son. He told the court he felt she was neglecting the home and spending too much time with work and her child.

In early 2014 the woman said she wanted to separate but the accused asked her to reconsider. “One night he said ‘as long as we’re both staying in this house I’m going to have sex with you’,” she told the court.

The woman said on May 25th, 2014 they were arguing about separating when he told her: “We’re finished talking, we’re staying together. I’ve decided we’re staying together. You don’t get to decide this. It will be my choice if we ever separate.”

She said he took up a knife and said he would cut her face open.

The jury is still considering if he is guilty of ordering the woman upstairs that night and raping her.

The trial heard the woman went to the Family Court the next day and obtained an interim barring order.

Jurors also returned a guilty verdict on a charge of making a threat to cause serious harm in a supermarket on June 9th, 2014.

The trial heard the accused followed her to the supermarket where he told her he knew everywhere she had been that day. He demanded to see their son and tried to grab her car keys from her. He then told her “next time I’ll bring a hammer.”

The woman alleged that as she was driving away, the accused was following her and crashed into the back of her car at the traffic lights. The child was in the back of her car, she said.