Ellen Gough, 21 Mar
A judge has jailed for four years and 10 months a Co Clare man who
carried out “very serious sexual assaults” on his wife "as acts of
gross domestic abuse” in a campaign to subjugate her.
At Ennis Circuit Court today, Judge Francis Comerford imposed the
prison term on the 50 year old part-time farmer who is the first to
plead guilty to a charge of coercive control before the courts in Co
Clare.
Judge Comerford said that the repeated sexual assault offences were
carried by the man “in order to dominate the injured party”.
He said that “it is patently clear that these sexual assaults were
carried out and conducted as acts of gross domestic abuse in order to
subjugate the injured party and the whole family to his whims”.
Judge Comerford said that the accused "had committed a series of very
serious offences against his estranged wife often in close proximity to
their children”.
Judge Comerford said that the accused had committed the crimes against
the woman “because she had not acted in the way that he wanted and had
not complied with his demands”.
Judge Comerford said that he would not be suspending any of the
sentence imposes on each count as the accused had committed multiple
offences and he had received concurrent sentences for four counts of
sexual assault and one count for coercive control.
Judge Comerford imposed a sentence of four years and ten months for one
count of sexual assault and lesser prison terms for the other three sex
assault counts along with two years and nine months for the coercive
control offence.
READ MORE: Man pleads guilty to 'solo' offence in Dromoland Inn
changing rooms
Judge Comerford said that the man’s name is now on the Sex Offenders’
register.
Judge Comerford noted that the man - who can't be named to protect the
identity of his estranged wife and children - has no previous
convictions and has pleaded guilty to the offences.
In the case, the accused 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 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.
In relation to one sexual assault which occurred in October 2018 which
resulted in the woman leaving the family home with the couple’s
children, 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 daughter 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.
Counsel for the State, Shane Costelloe SC 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 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 stated 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”.
In his plea of mitigation for his client, 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 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”.