A 24-year-old Dublin man who admitted threatening to kill his partner – punching, choking, shoving, and chasing her -has appeared before the Central Criminal Court.
John Hoey (24), of St Catherine’s Park, Rush, Co Dublin, is also charged with criminal damage in relation to the smashing of a back patio door after he said his partner would not let him into the house they shared in circumstances where they were having relationship issues.
The accused pleaded guilty to the charges. He and his victim remain in a relationship, with the court hearing that she discovered she was pregnant shorty after the incident.
Garda Niamh Owens of Malahide Garda station gave evidence that in the early hours of the 3rd of April last, she was on duty when she made contact with the alleged victim who was in a “distressed state” and had a “black eye” and was holding a red-handled Stanley knife in her hand.
The woman told Garda Owens that her relationship of 18 months with the accused had “deteriorated” over the previous months, but that the incident now before the courts was the “worst so far”.
The court heard that the accused had found the Snapchat account of his partner and “became jealous”, accusing her of “cheating” on him before “overthinking” and “ruminating” on the issue.
The woman said to Garda Owens that he had accused her of being “cheeky” to him while he was discussing her social media with him while sitting on the toilet when she was in the bath.
She alleges that he took the toilet brush and hit her with it in her head and her stomach before pushing her down in the water with his left arm as his right arm was in a splint. She claimed that she was “begging him to stop”.
Later on, as he went through her Snapchat again, she told Garda Owens that the accused again said she was “being cheeky”, before she began to pack a bag in order to leave the home. She said he then cornered her and “boxed her in the skull” on the left side of her head, causing her to bang her head off the wardrobe which led to bleeding.
He was continuing to accuse her “having emotional and sexual relationships with other people”, she said, adding that if she spoke up he would “hit her in the body or the legs”. The court accepted that the victims’ recollection of what had happened was “slightly disjointed”.
His anger would “escalate and then calm down”, the court heard.
When the victim went downstairs the accused, she claimed, asked her to come back upstairs before brandishing a Stanley knife at her, pointing it in her face and “trying to get close to her neck”, the prosecuting counsel said.
When she went into another bedroom, he followed her in and grabbed her by the throat with his left arm causing her to pass out, although the victim says she doesn’t remember losing consciousness.
After the accused “kept going further back in her messages and came across one for two years saying she was single” he began “freaking out again” and “started to try headbutt her.”
He calmed down again, the court heard, and went downstairs while checking her phone before he “ran for her”. She put a clothes horse between them which he threw out of the way, smashing a mirror.
The prosecution related the testimony of the woman saying: “If he saw one more message on snapchat that he didn’t like he would kill her.”
During the course of his examination of her social media activity, the accused allegedly said, “Oh another black lad”, before the woman tried to flee the house. He then chased her, caught her by the throat and threw her across the room, calling her a “slut”, the court heard.
She managed to escape out the back door but was pursued on foot through the estate before being pushed into the side of a skip.
Passersby came across the woman and helped her to call Gardaí, and the accused was located sometime later at 4:30am where he made admissions as to his actions.
The court heard he admitted to assaulting the woman and producing a knife under caution, explaining how he had become enraged after discovering that his partner was “operating a certain internet site behind his back.”
The victim did not seek medical attention, and has not made a victim impact statement, with the court hearing the pair are still in a relationship now.
The accused man has no previous convictions.
His defending counsel argued that his client was himself “subject to serious amounts of violence” and “routinely subjected to beatings” growing up.
He is “extremely remorseful” and waived his right to a solicitor during his Garda interview, and has attended a Safe Families course since the incident.
Judge Orla Crowe ordered a probation report and that the accused partake in a recognised domestic violence program specific to intimate partner violence to alleviate the court’s concerns regarding the “very concerning case”.
She set the case back the 21st of October next for sentencing
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