On one occasion he stood over his family while holding a shotgun demanding that his wife confess an alleged affair she was having
He was remanded in custody to February 25 for sentencing after the jury deliberated over three days before returning verdicts.
Evidence was given during the trial at Dundalk Circuit Court that it was a regular occurrence for the man to come home drunk and make life “a living hell” for his family.
The relationship with his now ex-wife was described as one of “slave and owner”.
On one occasion he stood over his family while holding a shotgun demanding that his wife confess an alleged affair she was having. Their two daughters were underage teens at the time.
The defendant denied charges of child cruelty and damaging a kettle on August 5, 2019; possession of a shotgun for an unlawful purpose, producing a shotgun in the course of a dispute and false imprisonment of his ex-wife and two daughters on December 22, 2019.
Stock image
News in 90 Seconds – Sunday, November 9th
He also contested using violence with a view to compelling his ex-wife to leave her residence on December 29, 2019; and damaging a toaster and a sun lounger on dates between January 4 and July 4, 2020.
He was acquitted of the last two charges.
A jury of 7 women and 5 men heard that the eldest daughter made four video recordings on her phone of events on August 5 and one, which was audio only, of what occurred on December 29.
These were played in court after the judge refused a defence application to omit them, though some slight edits were made.
Evidence was heard that on the August date the accused came home from the pub and “started his usual fighting”.
He turned a table upside down, ripped his polo short straight down the middle and ran to his youngest daughter, lifting her under the armpits and pinning her against a kitchen cabinet.
The child cruelty charges emanated from that incident.
He smashed a kettle into the kitchen sink.
A specialist Garda interview which took place on August 2020 was shown to the jury and in it the teenager said that her father wouldn’t let her go. She asked him to stop and he wouldn’t. He used his thumb to get her to look up.
She told him that she got hurt in the gym because she feared that if she said he was hurting her he would get more annoyed. From her armpit down to her elbow was sore. Her big sister got in the middle and eventually he let go.
The older girl testified that they got a Chinese meal to eat. Her father was drunk. He was throwing food and water around. Her Mam was trying to clean up.
He got really angry and she decided to record on her phone.
“I was afraid of what was going to happen to us.”
On December 22 when he came from the pub, he threatened to shoot dogs that were at the house.
He went upstairs and brought down one of the shotguns. He stood over his family as they sat on a couch, holding the shotgun across his body.
The man claimed that his wife was having an affair and demanded she tell the children what she had done.
“We were terrified. We didn’t move from the couch,” the woman said.
“It seemed like forever but probably lasted 15 to twenty minutes.”
She added that the children were inconsolable. She didn’t know if the gun was loaded or not.
“It’s not something you ask when someone is standing over you with a gun.”
The youngest daughter in her specialist interview said that it was an air rifle.
“I knew he couldn’t work it sober, never mind drunk,” she said.
Cross-examined in the witness box, it was put to her that she knew exactly what an air rifle was.
“I don’t. I’m sorry.”
She continued that her father said, “If you don’t like it, you can leave.”
The older girl testified that the gun had a long black barrel and a wooden handle. She was too afraid to get up off the sofa.
“He was standing over us with the gun. He said it wasn’t loaded.”
On December 29, the defendant’s wife said that he came home from the pub “ranting and raving”.
He told her that she was going to get out of the house.
“He marched me into the utility room and locked me in the granny flat.”
She was there all night until he let her out the next morning at 9.15-9.30.
That was the grounds of the coercion accusation.
He threw a sun lounger onto decking, smashed pictures and pulled paintings off the walls.
The witness said to defence counsel, “Nobody wants to be here (in court). Why would I put myself and the children through this?”
Her youngest daughter said she remembered texting her Mam, asking, “Where are you? Please answer me.”
The older girl said that the defendant was angry and giving out about the smallest of things. He locked her mother in the granny flat.
She told counsel that her life was “a living hell”. He father was never physically violent.
Asked if there were any positive things about her father, she replied, “When he left the house”.
Any expression of love was to “keep him happy”. It was a “slave and owner” relationship between her parents. “He controlled us. He was the master.”
She couldn’t recall one incident of him going out hunting or shooting.
“The only time he left the house was to go to the pub.”
Her sister said that she doesn’t have one happy memory of her father in her childhood.
The jury heard that their mother obtained an interim barring order in June 2020.
Approximately 12 Gardaí, including armed detectives and members of the Armed Support Unit, went to the house when the order was served on the defendant on June 10, 2020.
He answered the door and brought two of the officers inside. He handed over a Beretta shotgun and an OB shotgun along with 540 rounds of 12-guage cartridges. The guns were legally held.
There was no other firearm in the gun cabinet, Sgt Fiachra Sloan said.
The defendant did not testify.
Addressing the jury at the conclusion of evidence, prosecuting counsel Miska Hanahoe BL said they had “actual, real evidence” of what was going on in the videos.
The offences were “clear as day” on the footage, “all there on tape”.
Referencing the scrutiny president-elect Catherine Connolly had been under over her work as a barrister, defence counsel Garnet Orange SC remarked that everybody coming to court is entitled to legal representation.
He said that “the most appalling evidence” had been produced by the prosecution, shouting at his poor wife and the way he treated his children, “I don’t condone it”.
It was about the charges on the indictment.
“Raw emotion doesn’t prove their case.”
Mr Orange continued that the evidence was “an awful lot of noise and not a great deal of substance”.
“It’s not a criminal offence to be a male chauvinist pig,” he said.
The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on the child cruelty, damaging kettle, false imprisonment and coercion charges, and majority 11-1 guilty verdicts on the two shotgun offences.
Judge Dara Hayes told the jurors that it hadn’t been an easy case as he excused them from jury service for the next 6 years.
The judge rejected a defence application to grant the defendant bail ahead of sentencing.
A probation report and Victim Impact Statements were directed for the next day, while legal aid was extended for psychiatric and psychological reports.
Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme