A man who engaged in a prolonged campaign of coercive control and violence against his partner, forcing her to keep a doorbell camera on her so he could monitor her at all times, has been jailed for five years.
The 41-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the children involved, pleaded guilty to one count of coercive control and three counts of assault causing harm to the woman between 2017 and 2020.
The Circuit Court heard he took the woman’s social welfare payments, did not allow her to have a phone, isolated her from her family and installed a house alarm but did not give her the code, to restrict her movements.
He also bought a Ring doorbell and forced her to have it with her at all times so he could watch her and ensure she was not “entertaining” anyone, Detective Sergeant Nicola Duffy told the court. When he rang the doorbell, she had to answer it instantly and show him both her hands and what she was doing, the court heard.
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In a victim-impact statement, the woman said she was being beaten by the man on a near daily basis towards the end of their relationship. She described the fear it caused her children, who eventually stopped asking her why she was bruised.
She recalled being told by her young son’s teacher that he expressed fear his mammy would be killed by the man.
The court heard the couple met online shortly after the woman broke with a previous partner, who is the father of two of her children. She and her children moved in with the accused, and he started behaving violently towards her about nine months later.
The court heard the woman had two further children with this man. She also suffered a miscarriage and the man accused her of taking something to “kill the baby”.
The woman described attempting to escape the man on one occasion, taking the children in a taxi to the post office to get her welfare payment and leave, only to be met by him and brought back home.
The court heard she eventually successfully escaped him after he assaulted her while she was pregnant with her fourth child..
She reported him to gardaí. When his house was searched, gardaí found the woman’s blood spatters on walls, floors, curtains and pictures frames, the court heard.
The woman said she had to battle the man in the family court and he was granted access to his two children. She said she felt he used this access to continue his control over her and that there should be a link between the family and criminal courts in such cases.
“He should not be allowed access to the children,” she said.
Defending, Mark Lynam SC said the couple were abusing drugs and alcohol after the miscarriage as a way of “numbing themselves”. The man’s drug use spiralled, but he is now drug-free, the court heard.
He worked for a period as a scaffolder, but is now working part-time and caring for a relative. A number of references, including from a former partner and two subsequent partners were handed into court.
Sentencing the man to five years, Judge Martin Nolan said the case involved serious and prolonged misbehaviour.
“There is a pattern of physical violence, a pattern of verbal violence, a pattern of totally controlling her, a pattern of assaulting her and a pattern of humiliating and ridiculing her,” he said, adding that the woman would “suffer long term effects”.
