A man who carried out “disgusting, disturbing and obnoxious” attacks on two ex-girlfriends has been remanded in custody after breaking a suspended sentence.
Ben Curry (25) beat and threatened a former partner at knifepoint “to pick a finger or a toe” and subjected another ex-girlfriend to a vicious 40-minute beating in public when she tried to end their brief relationship.
In April last year, Judge Keenan Johnson imposed consecutive sentences totalling seven years, backdated to 2023, when Curry went into custody, with the remaining term of four years and nine months suspended for five years.
The case was re-entered before Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday after Curry failed to engage with the Probation Service and continue treatment with a forensic psychologist.
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The judge said he was not impressed with the development that had happened in the past week.
Curry explained he became homeless at the end of last year, which affected his ability to comply with his probation officer or meet with his psychologist.
He said he later linked up with an agency that helps to house people and pleaded not to be returned to prison.
He owned up to drinking alcohol, which was another breach of the suspended sentence.
Johnson deferred until later this week a ruling on whether the sentence will be activated pending inquiries into Curry’s accommodation and employment.
Curry had pleaded guilty earlier to assault causing harm and threatening to kill his first female victim at Gate Lodge Apartments, Willow Park, Athlone, Co Westmeath, on New Year’s Day 2023.
He also admitted to attacking and robbing the second young woman on May 22nd, 2023, at the rear of Athlone Town Shopping Centre.
Forensic psychiatric reports stated Curry, who had been placed into care at the age of four, had been diagnosed as having anger-management issues stemming from childhood abuse and abandonment.
He had gone off the rails when he was 20.
Earlier, the judge described the incidents as disgusting, disturbing and obnoxious with a level of violence that was concerning.
Curry was couch surfing at the time of the first attack on the young woman, who was in student accommodation and had taken him in.
She was in the shower while he looked at her phone and allegedly saw she had been texting an ex-boyfriend.
Curry ordered her out of the shower, punched a hole in the wall and caused €1,500 worth of damage. Curry “slapped her in the face, put his arm around her and lifted her off the floor”.
He dropped her on to a bed and punched and slapped her in the face.
He then left, but returned holding a kitchen knife, and told her, “Pick a finger or a toe”.
“He held the blunt side of the knife to her face and said he would cut off her finger to stop her texting boys,” the court heard.
When he calmed down, she managed to get out of the apartment and rang her mother from a local shop. Photos of the injuries Curry inflicted were shown to the court.
During the second attack, Curry, who was on bail at the time, met the other young woman after she had already tried to tell him via Snapchat that she did not want to see him again.
Over 40 minutes, Curry pushed her on to the ground, head-butted, punched and kneed her in the face, and took her €900 iPhone.
That victim outlined to the court how she is in “constant fear”, has trust issues and “hated the way she looked after the assault”.
Curry had six prior convictions for drug possession, carrying a knife, trespassing, threat to kill or cause serious harm and production of an article in a dispute, and had already received a two-year sentence.
