A man who is two days shy of his 44th birthday has been jailed for 4yrs and 6 months for violently assaulting his partner at the time who was 19 when the offences occurred.
The Circuit Criminal court heard that Michael Ward who has an address on Parnell St. Dublin 1 was observed by passers by kicking Winnie McDonagh on the 16th of December 2023 while “heavily intoxicated” at the home he shared with his teenage son.
Gda Cian Rochford gave evidence of how the passers by had seen McDonagh being kicked “forcibly to the legs” by Ward and that she was observed trying to escape from him before jumping from the first floor apartment balcony, before making off in the direction of Gardiner Lane where she was found hiding under a car by a member of An Garda Síochána.
The passers by, a man by the name of Juan Garcia and his girlfriend Nicole managed to film a clip of part of the altercation and informed Gardaí of the direction McDonagh had gone in.
The court heard she had a seizure shortly after being assaulted by Ward but that it was believed that this event was not connected to the assault.
The pair were in a “toxic” relationship where both families were highly opposed to the union and were in the habit of consuming alcohol.
McDonagh was taken to the Mater Hospital and it was observed that her right wrist and ankle were swollen. She made a statement to Gardaí on the 24th of December 2023 leading to Ward being arrested and charged with breaches of Section 3 of the Criminal Justice Act for assault causing harm.
Fiona McGowan BL for the state advised that the maximum penalty for the offence was 10 years in jail, aggravated by the factor of the victim and perpetrator being in a relationship at the time.
McDonagh said she and Ward had had a fight in his apartment and were “both intoxicated”.
When she went to leave he stopped her and took the keys and locked the apartment before she was pushed and when she tried to get up she said Ward was “getting in her face and trying to square up to her”, the counsel for the State said.
McDonagh said that Ward had held his foreman to her throat while her back was against the wall and that she had gone to the bedroom to try and get away from him but he began “banging and screaming” in a situation she described as “chaos”.
Ward has 53 previous convictions including a number for assault and failure to appear before the courts.
He is currently in custody in relation to another matter and was on bail for the offences of the 16th of December 2023 while a second matter also aired before the same court took place.
He has been in custody since the 24th of March 2024.
Mr Pieter Le Vert BL defending said Ward has a history of “severe addiction” problems and was only a month out of a 10 year relationship with another woman when he became involved with McDonagh, who is over 20 years younger than him and was involved in a drug rehabilitation program where he was a counsellor with a Finglas addiction support team.
Le Vert argued that his client has been clean for a number of years and had got his life together but that the “significant pressure” placed on him over his controversial relationship with McDonagh had led him to get back on substances such as cocaine and alcohol and that he had “spiralled out of control”.
Garda Rochford agreed that Ward was “highly intoxicated” on arrest.
Turning to the second matter Garda Jennifer Highland of Mountjoy Garda Station gave evidence that Ward was arrested in connection with a Section 3 assault also of Winnie McDonagh which has taken palace on the 1st of March 2024, to which Gardaí were alerted via a 999 call after a passerby had heard a woman screaming in an apartment which turned out to be Ward’s address on Parnell Street.
The passerby said he had witnessed a man punch a woman and saw a female coming to the window of the apartment screaming before the male pulled her away.
When Gardaí arrived at the scene Ward said he could not find the apartment keys and claimed that there was no woman at the property, however Gardaí observed a mattress pushed up against a door off the hall of the property and made their way inside.
It was then that they discovered McDonagh “unconscious” on the bedroom floor, Garda Highland said.
First aid was administered with Ward “rubbed” McDonagh’s chest and saying that she was having a seizure. Garda Highland observed that there was swelling on her lip as well as red marks on her chest and neck.
When McDonagh came to she said that Ward had “hit her and head butted her”.
The court heard that the pair had continued to see each other despite Ward’s bail conditions stipulating that he have no contact with her.
The court heard that on the second occasion of assault Ward had pushed her against the walls of the apartment and had said he would “kill her stone dead” before choking her and head-butting her in the nose.
He was arrested at the scene but was found to be unfit for questioning because of his level of intoxication. When he sobered up in Garda custody he denied any wrongdoing saying that McDonagh had attacked him first.
The court heard that a number of injuries were seen on him and were photographed.
A victim impact statement was presented to the court where it was expressed that the victim wished to read it herself, however this did not take place as she had changed her mind.
Pleading for leniency, Le Vert said that his client had lived with his grandparents until 2009 when his grandfather died and he was returned to his parents custody where he witnessed “significant domestic violence” – of which he was at time a victim – and lived in “extreme poverty”.
He began getting into trouble with the law at the age of 12 and when he also began to use cannabis and drink before leaving school at 14.
He also moved to the UK and lived somewhat “nomadically” but was a “talented boxer” who became a “full blown addict” by the age of 18 but lately “dedicates himself to regaining sobriety”.
He is in a “trusted position in jail” and also works outside on the grounds and attends a drugs counselor, the court heard.
He is “devastated “ about what he did to McDonagh and his behaviour in that regard.
Considering sentencing, Judge Martin Nolan said that Ward and McDonagh had been in a “toxic relationship” and that he was “heavily intoxicated” on the two occasions when she was “badly attacked”.
The young woman was “so terrified she jumped off a balcony”, Judge Nolan said.
He said that while Ward “has his own history” of conviction that there were“gaps” in this and that he is seemingly a “talented” and “intelligent” man who had had a “good start” when in the custody of his grandparents as a child.
Noting the maximum sentence of 10 years, he said that the starting point for the “totality” of Ward’s offences was 7 years for the 2 assaults.
With mitigation of his guilty plea and signs of remorse considered he said that he would set a “global sentence” of 4 and-a-half years with 2 and-a-half years on count one of the charge sheet and 2 years for the remaining count with the sentence to be backdated to when McDonagh was taken into custody.