*Photograph: John Mangan
A JUDGE has told a 49 year old Co Clare man that he faces “a significant custodial sentence” after hearing details of the coercive control and multiple sexual assaults the man carried out on his then wife.
At the sentencing hearing at Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford told the man “this is a case where a significant custodial sentence will have to be imposed and it is not appropriate that the question of custody be delayed any further”.
Remanding the man in prison to March 20th for sentence, Judge Comerford said that he required time to formulate his sentence for the accused due to the various counts involved.
It is the first coercive control case to come before the criminal courts in Clare and the part-time farmer has pleaded guilty to the coercive control of his then wife from January 2019 to May 2020 contrary to the 2018 Domestic Violence Act where he knowingly and persistently engaged in behaviour that was controlling or coercive and which had a serious effect on the woman.
The man also pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault against his then wife – who was in court for the hearing – on dates from October 2018 to February 2020 at two different addresses in Clare on a full facts basis.
The counts were sample counts from an original 22 counts that included 12 counts of sexual assault, six counts of false imprisonment, one assault count, one count of criminal damage and one count of coercive control.
Counsel for the State, Shane Costelloe SC (instructed by State Solicitor, Aisling Casey) told Judge Comerford that as the couple were married at the time, he is mandated to view this as an aggravating factor when sentencing.
In relation to one sexual assault which occurred in October 2018, the accused came up from behind his wife in the kitchen at the family home and told her “I want a ride”.
Det Garda Cathy Burke of the Clare Garda Division Protective Services Unit said that the woman told him that she was not interested but the man pulled her down towards a spare bedroom in the home and was very forceful and aggressive and pulled her jeans and underwear down.
The woman continued to resist and a child of the two passed by the bedroom window and the incident only stopped when the child came to the bedroom door.
In another incident, Det Burke described how the man tried to tie his wife with a white rope to a plastic chair in a garage but this was again interrupted when one of their children came to a side door of the garage.
The State also played to the court a compilation of 23 minutes of audio mainly recorded on the woman’s smart-phone of the ill-treatment she suffered at the hands of her husband.
Mr Costelloe told Judge Comerford said that the audio is more eloquent than what a witness would say in terms of the accused man’s offending.
Mr Costelloe stated that the coercive control count consisted of an environment where the accused was very aggressive, monitoring his wife’s phone calls and asking her who she was seeing.
The couple are separated since 2018 and in her victim impact statement read out by Det Garda Burke, the woman addressed her ex-husband when she said “my children and I have had to leave our family home where they have always lived and grown up because of your choice to abuse me”.
She said, “You have always made excuses for your actions and justified your behaviour, blaming anyone but yourself”.
She said, “At times, I have been so frightened of you. I have often wondered how all this would end. This has made me fear for my life”.
She added, “You have inflicted physical injuries on me throughout our marriage, but these have and will heal. The emotional and psychological pain that you have caused me and try to continue to cause, will never go away”.
She said, “I have chosen to make this stand and no longer be a victim of your abuse. I will not feel guilty for telling the truth and showing our children that domestic abuse is not acceptable.
“By making this victim impact statement, I want you to know that you will no longer control me or our children. Despite being a private person, I feel that I have no choice but to be honest about the hurt and pain that you have caused our family”.
Counsel for the accused, Bernard Madden SC told the court that his client has pleaded guilty, has no previous convictions and is a person of otherwise good character before the offending and since his arrest.
Mr Madden said that a report from the man’s GP states that the accused regrets many of his previous actions, is contrite and is keen to make the best of his future.
The GP’s report states that the accused is keen to maintain good relations with his youngest child “and if possible repair his relations with his immediate family”.
The GP stated that in his opinion, the accused has good insight into the gravity of his past errors of judgment and behaviour “and in my view is unlikely to reoffend into the future”.
A consultant psychiatrist’s report stated the man “lights up” when he talks about relationship with his youngest child.
The report stated that the man has been engaging with anger management.
Mr Madden told the court, “I know this is late in the day but my client instructs me to apologise to his wife and his children for his behaviour and he wants me to express his remorse and his contrition at his behaviour at which he is belatedly coming to the view that it was entirely unacceptable”.
Mr Madden said that this has been arrived at due to the various courses the man has undergone in order to address his anger and his tendency to commit assaults particularly on people who are very close to him.
Mr Madden said that it distresses his client that he has done this in the presence of his children who are affected by it.
Mr Madden said that his client’s remorse and contrition “are genuine” and he will do “everything possible in order to right any wrongs he has done in the past and ensure that he is a valuable and contributing person to society in the future”.
