Man jailed for subjecting ex-partner to terrifying 19-hour ordeal after breaking into her home

A Wicklow man who subjected his former partner to a terrifying 19-hour ordeal after breaking into her home has been jailed for seven years.

A sitting of Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court heard Alan McEvoy subjected the woman to a prolonged campaign of harassment by following, pestering and texting her on numerous occasions over a three-month period as well as impersonating a garda in calls to her employer.

The court heard that during the assault McEvoy threatened his victim with a syringe which he would fill with acid in the knowledge that she had a phobia about needles, while also claiming the IRA were after her and her mother in Poland would be killed.

Judge Martina Baxter said his actions represented “a gross invasion of bodily integrity and freedom of movement” and constituted “persistent, disturbing and controlling behaviour” which left his victim physically and psychologically traumatised.

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McEvoy (52) of Carrigacurra, Valleymount, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to burglary of his former partner’s home in Tulfarris village outside Blessington, Co Wicklow, on May 21st/22nd, 2016, and assaulting her on the same occasion. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of harassing the woman, a 39-year-old dental nurse, at various locations between April 27th and July 27th, 2016.

McEvoy and his former partner, a Polish national and mother of one, had been in a three-year relationship which ended in January 2015. The court heard that CCTV footage captured the accused following her as she left for work from her home on the morning of May 21st, 2016, to a filling station where he shouted at her that it was her “last chance”.

The judge said McEvoy’s victim had made it clear that their relationship was over but he would not take “no” for an answer. The woman reported the incident to gardaí in Tallaght before returning home that evening and was settling down to watch Netflix when McEvoy “suddenly appeared out of nowhere” after laying in wait in her house after entering it illegally. The court heard he was wearing latex gloves and dressed entirely in black clothing including a pair of her leggings but shoeless. The woman said he grabbed and assaulted her including punching her in the head as she lay on the floor, while she vomited a number of times. He also bound her hands behind her back with cable ties and tied her legs together and only untied them after she agreed to resume their relationship.

Judge Baxter said it was clear that it was a planned and premeditated incident and the woman only gave up resistance in order to bring it to a stop. “The indignity he put her through was grossly humiliating,” the judge observed.

Throughout the ordeal, McEvoy warned his victim that she was under threat from the IRA and she needed him to protect her as well as her ex-husband and their child. He also threatened her that there was a “crew” who were in Poland who would kill her mother. McEvoy also took her mobile phone to send texts to end a potential new relationship with another man and instructed the woman to have a shower to wash away DNA.

Among the injuries suffered by his victim was a swollen jaw, a bruised shoulder and scratches and cuts to her hands and wrists. As evidence of his “duplicity and deceit”, Judge Baxter observed McEvoy also went to a Garda station that evening to claim his ex-partner had fallen and hurt her face but that he believed she would fabricate complaints about him.

He also made false allegations against her in calls posing as a garda and a member of the Dental Council to her various employers. “He seemed to think he was invincible in denigrating her,” Judge Baxter said.

She said his ex-partner was “a very brave woman” who had provided a “powerful, articulate and emotional” victim impact statement in which she described how she was devastated that someone could be “so evil and vindictive” when she had done nothing. The victim described McEvoy as “a ghost lurking in the shadows”.

Sentencing McEvoy to nine years in prison for the burglary, the judge suspended the final two years on a number of conditions. They include that he remains under the supervision of the Probation Service for two years and resides at an agreed address on release from prison. He is also prohibited from making any contact with his former partner or her family or attempting to monitor or conduct surveillance of her. McEvoy also has to disclose any new intimate relationship to a probation officer.

He was sentenced to three years each for the convictions for assault and harassment with all sentences to run concurrently which will be backdated to when he was placed in custody in March 2022.