A man who subjected his ex-partner to a campaign of coercive control, physical, and verbal abuse on dates between 2021 and 2023 has been jailed by the Circuit Criminal Court.
Levi McCarthy (32), who has an address of North Frederick St. Dublin, pleaded guilty to multiple counts, 23 in all, of having committed instances of abuse in respect of the victim who was present in court.
The court heard that the victim was punched, kicked, verbally abused, and repeatedly threatened that she would be killed or seriously harmed.
On one occasion the accused – who was adopted after being abandoned by his mother and raised in Limerick – smashed his way into the family home of the victim causing her mother and sisters to lock themselves into the bathroom in fear of their lives.
The court heard that the victim was subjected to three occasions of assault causing harm contrary to Section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act as well as two instances of assault causing harm contrary to Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
McCarthy also pleaded guilty to instances of making threats in relation to the victim’s family members including for the purposes of preventing or impeding a Garda investigation.
Gda Colin Shelly of Naas Garda Station gave evidence that the defendant and the victim got into a romantic relationship, which lasted about two years, but instances of abuse had arisen almost immediately.
The court heard how the victim was “threatened throughout the relationship” and that she was “afraid to break up” with McCarthy because of the threats he frequently made against her and her family.
He would text her “continually” demanding to know where she was and what she was doing, and if he got no answer he would make threats.
He frequently humiliated the victim in front of her friends and made comments about her clothing, the court heard.
The pair started their relationship in 2021 and the first reports of abuse were made to Gardaí in May 2022.
In footage played before the court, the defendant could be heard making derogatory comments about the victim such as saying she had “fucking dirty smelly nails” from “eating chicken wings”.
“I’ll get a better grip on you,” he told her before saying, “don’t trip” and “Thanks for wasting all my time coming up to Dublin to spend time with you,” in reference to visits between the pair when the accused was living in homeless accommodation in the capital.
In the videos, much of which was unintelligible, the accused can be heard saying, “I want my 7Up now”, “Give me my 7up now”, and calling a third party a “junkie bastard”.
In a video taken the the victim’s family home on the 30th of May 2022, the accused said, “You’re testing me as if it’s not funny”, “Don’t annoy me about death”, “I don’t gave a fuck who’s downstairs”, “You’re all posh bastards up here”, as well as saying that the victim would be “afraid” to visit where he is from.
The court heard that on the 3rd of May the victim was assaulted at a hotel in Limerick.
On this occasion she sustained injuries to her face after being punched and choked. The accused also stole 50 euro from her, the court heard.
After an assault on Wolfe Tone Square, the victim made a statement to Gardaí that she was head butted on a date in May 2022.
On other occasions he threatened to “kill her” and “kill members of her family”.
The victim said that her arms were bruised after using them to shield herself from punches when she was punched 6-7 times.
In another recording played before the court, the accused could be heard telling the victim “Be careful of who you bump into in Dublin” and calling her a “fucking goofball” and “Smell of ya, posh” , “die bitch” and saying, “Ya fucking rat, ya”.
In a recording from the 16th of August 2021, he said “drive a knife through your neck” and “I’ll knife you dead”.
On the 15th of October he was recorded saying, “It’s all fun and games” and “You fucking dopey cunt, ya”, “you slow cunt”, and “you’ll get a bullet in the back of the head”.
In an incident from the 5th of November 2022, the victim sustained bruising chiefly to her forehead but also all over her face, Gda Shelly said.
Photos of the injuries as well as criminal damage done to the Beckett Lough Hotel where a television was damaged were handed to the court.
Gda Shelly said that the victim wanted to leave the relationship but allowed McCarthy to believe that she was still in it out of fear for her family.
The accused was arrested on the 12th Aug 2023 and taken to Naas Garda Station where he was interviewed.
Gda Shelly told the court that McCarthy made “admissions to almost all of what was put to him”.
He was then charged in relation to all matters and was later refused High Court bail.
Due to an error, he was released from custody for a period of a week in which time he made contact with the victim.
McCarthy has 60 previous convictions in this jurisdiction as well as 3 in France where he once lived and worked.
His offending in Ireland includes 17 convictions for threatening and insulting behaviour, 6 for obstructing a police officer, instances of theft, burglary, as well as others.
His offending in France resulted in the issue of a protection order in 2019 in respect of a former partner of his against whom he made “repeated threats”.
While in jail in Ireland , McCarthy sent letters and cards to the family home of the victim which the court accepted was done in a mode of causing further intimidation.
His defending counsel argued that McCarthy was interviewed by Gardaí five times and had made admissions in relation to the numerous charges against him.
She said her client was experiencing a “chronic addiction to alcohol” and that all of his previous offending was related to this.
He was adopted by a “loving” family in Limerick as a young child and was treated for “active addiction” as an infant due to his biological mother’s heroin use.
The court heard he was abandoned at the hospital by his mother after his birth.
A victim impact statement on behalf of the victim was read by Gda Shelly:
In this she said that her time with him had turned into a “nightmare” and that there was “no honeymoon period” in their relationship.
She said that they had met in July 2021 and that his “abusive behaviour” started soon after this and that he would “show up drunk” at her place and demand to be allowed to stay over saying that the homeless hostel he was living in at the time would not allow him in whilst intoxicated.
He would “threaten to break my windows if I didn’t let him in,” she said.
McCarthy “threatened to hurt me or my parents” she said. The victim told of how McCarthy had laughed about how she “struggled” through an instance where she was in hospital and how she “couldn’t leave the house without worrying if he’ll send someone to hurt me,”.
The parents of the victim also submitted a victim impact statement saying that they had been introduced to McCarthy in December 2021 but “weren’t really sure about him to be honest.”
They said he had an “extremely bad attitude” towards their daughter, and “the way he spoke to he” and that he continuously abused her “physically and mentally”.
They said that McCarthy had punched their daughter in the back of the neck and how they didn’t want him “near” her after this incident.
They said he “used to come to our home drunk and abusive” and that he would call the victim names.
Their daughter would return to them “having been beaten”. Her cheeks were swollen, and her legs were bruised from being kicked, they said.
The victim’s mother described how she used to love going to Dublin once a week but now “can’t” go anymore as she “can’t stand the sight of Dublin City” because it is where her daughter was abused on numerous occasions, and that she was “terrified” that McCarthy would see her there and “abuse or harm” her.
On one occasion McCarthy had waited for the victim to come off the morning train at Houston Station and had thrown all her clothes onto the train tracks causing them to be “destroyed”.
They said they have approached their GP in terms of dealing with what had happened to their family, but that the details were “very hard to discuss” and that there was “a lot of shame” about what had taken place.
They pointed to the effect the abuse of a sister had had on one of their other daughters saying this girl’s “mental health has suffered”.
When the victim left the house to see McCarthy, her family were “afraid it would be the last time she would walk out the door,” they said.
“He’s ruined so many things in our lives”, the statement said, detailing how McCarthy has threatened to kill them and how he has kicked in the front door of their house causing them to hide in a bathroom.
“I’ll never forget the fear we felt”, the victim’s mother wrote.
McCarthy’s defending counsel argued that her client was “educated” and that he had completed his leaving certificate and was a qualified carpenter who had worked at various locations around Europe.
He also has qualifications in site management, she said.
The court heard that his adoptive parents are now aged in their 80s and that not being able to see them is a strain on him.
His defence argued that drinking escalated when his nephew took his own life and that he was living in homeless accommodation in Dublin because he “couldn’t face his family down in Limerick” because of his alcohol abuse.
Before passing an effective sentence of 6-and-a-half-years, Judge Martin Nolan said that the relationship between the victim and McCarthy had been “an unhappy” one which involved “mental violence”, “trauma”, and “physical violence”.
He said the effects on the victim would be “long lasting”.
Judge Nolan said that McCarthy had a “sad start” in life and that he had previous convictions which were relevant to this case, noting that he was “in a drunken state” and that it was “difficult to understand what he was saying” in the recordings played to the court due to him being intoxicated and that “he has a certain accent”.
The maximum sentence for coercive control is five-and-half years, he noted.
Judge Nolan set a headline sentence of 9 years before mitigation.
The main mitigating factors were the guilty pleas in respect of all 23 counts, he said, delivering a sentence of 6-and-a-half years.
4 years of this was for the charge of cohesive control with the remaining 2.5 years to cater for the charges of assault contrary to Section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
For attempting to pervert the court of justice, McCarthy was sentenced to 2 years, which is to run concurrently from today’s date, in jail with all other charges taken into account.