A Dublin man has been jailed for two years after he pleaded guilty to charges of coercive control contrary to Section 39 of the Domestic Violence Act 2018, on dates between the 23rd of May 2021 and the 12th of December 2022, in respect of a woman with whom he had been in a relationship.
Conor Wallace (34) of Pearse House, Pearse Street, Dublin 2, told his victim, who came to Ireland from the US, that he was a successul musician, that he owned property in London, that he was terminally ill and needed to be taken care of, that his bank account had been frozen due to Brexit issues, and that both his parents were dead, all for the purpose of deceiving her into financially supporting him, the court heard.
He also lied about his age, claiming to be 41 when he was in fact 31 years old.
Passing sentence today, Judge Orla Crowe said that the woman, whom the court described as “a survivor”, was subjected to “a calculated, manipulative, consistent campaign of coercive control” amid which the accused had shown “an utter lack of empathy” or of “care” towards her.
When the facts were heard on the 23rd of January last, prosecuting counsel, Rebecca Smith BL, argued that the accused man had also hit, kicked, and choked the woman in the course of the relationship, which was kindled during the COVID lockdowns, and that he sent her hundreds of messages after she ended things, some of which were “sinister” in nature.
The court heard that the relationship began in May 2021 after the woman, who at the time had just come to Ireland and had not yet made friends, went for a drink in a Dublin pub where she was familiar with the bartender.
It was at this bar that the woman became acquainted with the accused, who later walked her home before the pair shared a few drinks at her place.
When Wallace left the house, the woman noticed that he had left his sunglasses there and took them to the bar, hoping to leave them. Staff told her that the man had left a tab open with his Revolut card still behind the bar and that there was a note attached, saying “Conor Kasabian”.
Nine days later, the accused turned up at the woman’s home telling her that he had suffered a heart attack, and that he had been in hospital since the last time they met.
He told her that he was “lucky to be alive” as the heart attack had happened while he was at work at a famous music studio, and that others present had called an ambulance for him.
He said he needed someone “to take care of him” and that he was “seriously ill”, whereupon he moved into the woman’s house and was immediately financially dependent on her, the court heard.
Ms Smith argued that Wallace told the victim that both his parents were deceased, that he had been living in London for a number of years, and that he was only in Ireland to work at the recording studio, all of which were fabrications.
He also told the woman that he had lost a lot of his friends through drugs and suicide, that his younger brother had taken his own life, that his father and his father’s friends had sexually abused him as a child, and that he had nobody else in Ireland. He also lied about his age, saying he was a decade older than he is.
Garda Kevin Massey gave evidence of how Gardaí were called to the woman’s address on the 4th of December 2023 at 7:15 pm after a glass alcohol bottle was thrown through her living room window.
In July 2021, the accused came back ‘from the studio’ at 5 am one morning before claiming that he was having another heart attack. An ambulance was called, and he was conveyed to hospital.
On another occasion, when Wallace had said he was at work, the woman spotted him out in Dublin. When she confronted him about this, he claimed that he had just come from a hospital in the area where he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
The woman said she felt “extremely guilty” for doubting him, that she believed him to be terminally ill, and wanted to take care of him, as she herself is a cancer survivor.
While Wallace maintained that he was going to work and receiving treatment, the woman continued to pay for everything as the relationship continued. She said that he would return to the house with a bag of dirty clothes, and that she would launder these for him.
One day, she found a letter from a debt collection agency in his bag addressed to a house in South Dublin. When she asked him why this was, he claimed that he had bought a house for his parents to live in before they passed away.
When the woman asked why, if he was so successful, that she was paying for everything, he told her that his accounts had been frozen after he attempted to move his bank accounts from Lloyd’s in the UK to AIB in Ireland.
He said that he only wanted to be in Ireland to be with her, which made her feel bad for questioning him, Ms Smith outlined.
At a certain point, the woman was asked to leave the property she was renting, which she claimed was due to the “screaming and shouting” that went on during the course of disputes with the accused.
In her evidence, she said that she managed, with some difficulty, to find another property for the pair to move into, but that he refused to go on the lease because he was having “financial difficulties”.
The woman said that she had spent in the region of 27,000 on the man’s upkeep, and that she had to go into credit card debt in order to finance the lease on the new property, and that she had no savings left at this point.
On the 20th of Dec 202, the accused told her he was going for cancer treatment in London, and that he would be back after Christmas.
Around this time, the woman received a tip-off that a man they believed to be the accused’s father had passed away and that the funeral would be live-streamed.
When the woman tuned into the livestream, she saw Wallace at the funeral, but when she texted the accused to ask him about this, he said that it “couldn’t have been him”.
He later admitted that it was him, and claimed that he had gone to London to purchase an engagement ring for her, which he later claimed was stuck in customs.
Ms Smith argued that the accused continued to make excuses about his health, family problems, and his employment.
The woman gave evidence that the accused had been violent towards her, that he had mistreated her dog, who took ill and later passed away, and that he had broken various items belonging to her, including throwing pots and smashing things.
In December 2022, the woman ended the relationship, leading to an altercation and the Gardaí being called.
The woman said she had established a code word system with a number of neighbours in order to let them know if something was wrong without alerting the accused.
Pictures of injuries the woman had sustained in the course of the relationship were submitted to the court, with the woman saying that she has been assaulted four or five times, that she had suffered black eyes, been pushed face first into a dresser causing blood to splatter on the walls, that she had been choked and left with bruising on her neck, that she had bruises on her chest from the accused kneeling on her while choking her, and that her legs were injured by him kicking her.
She said she sustained several “deep gashes” to her nose, but that she was too embarrassed to seek medical attention. She said that the incident with the dresser had necessitated the painting of some internal walls, and that this had taken place between the 3rd and 31st of December 2021.
Gardaí were first alerted to the situation when the woman called them on the 20th of December 2022, at which time she went to Dolphin House to apply for an interim barring order.
She said that she had seen less of him but was still answering his electronic communications up until September 2023, but not since then.
Ms Smith explained that many of the communications contained “declarations of love” and that he was “asking her back”, but that others were “sinister” in nature. During this time, he also left various gifts at her home, the court heard.
The woman said she was living “in a state of fear” at this time, and that she was “afraid to walk to Tesco” having “flown across the Atlantic alone” to come to Ireland before meeting the accused.
After the accused made a statement to Gardaí in April 2024, as part of which she prepared a package of their communications, the accused was arrested at an address in south Dublin.
The court heard that officers arrived at the address at 6:45 am and that the door was answered by the accused’s mother before he was seen coming down the stairs.
The accused was arrested and interviewed on four occasions in the course of which he accepted that his behaviour was consistent with coercive control. He also admitted that “almost all” of the information he had given the woman was lies.
During the final interview the accused reversed his position, saying that he did not believe that he was guilty of coercive control, but accepted that the woman had been supporting him.
Defending counsel, Justin McQuade BL, argued that his client had cooperated with Gardaí once their investigation had commenced; however, Garda Massey said that “went no comment” during questions regarding the emails he had sent the woman.
The accused has no previous convictions, and has not come to adverse Garda attention since the relevant dates, Mr McQuade argued.
Mr McQuade argued that his client had been “a chronic alcoholic” at the time of the offences and that he “looks much better now”.
He argued that the guilty pleas were “of significant value to the victim” and that his client had “from time to time become emotional”, was “crying”, and was “self-harming”.
McQuade acknowledged that the impact on the victim had been “not good” and that his client “describes himself as lonely”.
He said that his client “took advantage of her good nature and her charity,” and that the communications he had sent her were “of a very needy type”.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said that she had “scars” on her face and that she had suffered two black eyes.
She described the impact on her mental health, saying she was “a fraction” of the person she used to be.
She said that being taken advantage of by someone who had lived in her house, slept in her bed, met her family, and eaten her food was worse than being victimised by a stranger, telling of how he had “decided to lie and steal” from her every day.
“I waited on him hand and foot”, she said, describing how the accused had told her he wanted to move to Ireland to be with her.
“He told me he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me,” she said.
Judge Crowe heard that the accused is now living in hostel accommodation, and that he is in receipt of illness benefit of €240 per week.
Mr McQuade argued that his client had “taken ownership of his wrongdoing” and had made “some attempt at rehabilitation”.
The court commended the victim for the “dignity” with which she had delivered her lengthy victim impact statement, saying “she has done justice to herself today”.
This afternoon, Thursday, 16th of April 2026, Judge Crowe said in her sentencing remarks that the accused had “chronic” drug and alcohol issues, and had started drinking while still of school-going age.
She said that he “took advantage of a person who was very, very good-natured”, and Wallace was even “violent” towards her dog, ‘Jimmy’, who died a short time later.
Judge Crowe said that Wallace’s actions had “damaged her sense of belonging in this community”, noting that the victim being “a non-national” had made the offending worse as she didn’t have the ordinary level of social ties in Ireland at that time.
“It was a systematic deception, a whole web of lies,” she said. The court set a headline sentence of four years before reducing this to three years, with the final 12 months suspended for two years on strict conditions.
The accused must make himself available to the Probation Services for 12 months after release and must notify them of any new relationships. He must also attend all sessions of offence-related interventions, have no contact with the victim by any means, provide Gardaí with a phone number and reside at a registered address.
Judge Crowe said that the victim had shown “extraordinary grace” in her remarks to the court, that she “rightly says she is a survivor”, that she “spoke without bitterness,” and that she “will continue to survive and thrive again “
“The court wishes her all the best,” Judge Crowe said.