Woman in fear of her ex-partner wishes him well in victim impact statement

A woman was in fear of her ex-partner and pleaded with him to stay away from her, but found time in her victim impact statement to wish him well with his life.

Judge Mary Dorgan quoted from the victim impact statement in which the woman said: 

“I am a prisoner in my own home. I am overwhelmed by him coming around, and constantly being put down on Facebook. He is 44 — he needs to cop on.”

The judge said it was a very fair victim impact statement. She said the accused should not be coming around to his ex-partner’s home. And she noted at the in camera hearing of Cork District Court that the woman even went so far as to wish him well in his life.

Defence solicitor Eddie Burke said there were not too many people who came before the court accused of breaching a domestic order and pleaded guilty on day one.

Mr Burke said the accused was effectively saying: “I was wrong, I shouldn’t have gone to her house.” He said the defendant was a man who once had a serious alcohol addiction, but that he had put that behind him. 

“I spoke to the guard who investigated this case and he confirmed it was not a drink issue at all,” he said. “He keeps himself occupied, he gets work day to day.”

Judge Dorgan said she would take all of this into consideration, but that she also had to take into account the fact that he had three previous convictions for offences of a similar nature. In all the circumstances, a prison sentence of four months was imposed.

The judge said that without the mitigating factors, a sentence of nine months would have been merited.

“You need to stay off the drink,” the judge said to the defendant.

He replied by video link from prison: “I know your honour, it’s embarrassing.”