Anthony Mackessy (42) also wanted to take Emma Hallahan to Sophie murder site in Schull
11:16, 18 Nov 2025Updated 11:17, 18 Nov 2025
A domestic abuse survivor says she has been let down by the justice system – as her attacker will walk free from prison in less than two months.
Brave victim Emma Hallahan was put through a horrific sustained assault at the hands of her ex-boyfriend Anthony Mackessy (42), who dragged her up and down stairs by her hair, beat her, held her at knifepoint and told her he’d kill her at her home in Dungarvan, Co Waterford on January 13, 2024.
Last week HSE worker Mackessy, who eventually pleaded guilty to assault, was jailed for just one year behind bars for his shocking crime. However, thanks to standard remission and time served having gone into custody in April – he will walk free from prison on January 5, 2026.
“That is not justice,” Emma said. Emma also revealed how twisted Mackessy, who had threatened to kill her, even liked to bring her to famous murder sites – including the home of murder victim Tina Satchwell in Youghal, Co Cork. “He would take me to sites where women had been murdered. So he would take me to sit outside Tina Satchwell’s house. He always wanted to take me to Schull where Sophie Toscan Du Plantier was murdered. All the signs were there. I remember the detective on my case said to me ‘if you don’t get out of this relationship, you will be another number’.”
Anthony, jailed last week to just a year behind bars over an attack in which his ex-partner Emma Hallahan thought she was going to die
Incredible survivor Emma, who initially went back to Mackessy after being assaulted, says she was terrified of the man, and it took her all to eventually take him to court and see him jailed. “He took no accountability for what he did to me. He said it was only a section 3 assault and ‘I should have killed you.’ I was terrified of him and so I went to court with him on 8 April pretending I was standing with him. I had a safety plan in place with the detective and the women’s refuge. But I was terrified going down in that car. I felt I was going to be physically sick.”
Emma told the Irish Mirror she now fears Mackessy’s imminent release – and says she is having to move house in order to keep away from him. “I am terrified of his release,” Emma said. “He is not allowed any direct and indirect contact with me and he has to sign a bond on that and there’s a thing there where he’s not going to come to Dungarvan. But who’s going to control that? This is not America. They are not tagged. Who’s going to stop him? I can have all the safety orders in the country but the only time I got some relief was when he was in custody. Now I need to find a new home. I can’t let him know where I live.”
Describing Mackessy as “very jealous and controlling,” Emma opened up on the night that he viciously assaulted her – after he believed that men in the bar they were socialising in were looking at her. “I just wanted to go home. He was just having none of it and he started to call me names and he started to dance with other women. I just pleaded with him could we please go home,” Emma said.
“He stormed in front of me, elbowed me into the chest and shouted abuse at me. He continued into the car park and shouted at me to get into the car. I sat into the passenger seat with the door open. On the route home he pulled the car in twice and physically assaulted me and was telling me he’s going to kill me.”
Upon returning home, Mackessy subjected Emma to a horrific and sustained assault – dragging her up the stairs by her hair – before dragging her back down. “I was at the top of the stairs at one stage and he was ordering me to get down the stairs on my knees. I said I physically cannot do that. So he dragged me down by the hair,” Emma said. “While I was on the floor he dragged me from the hall to the living room, kicking me, hitting me, spitting on me, calling me really derogatory names.”
Emma Hallahan photographed in Dungarvan. Photo; Mary Browne
Emma waited until Mackessy fell asleep on the chair – during which time she went through his phone, confirming her suspicions that he had been cheating on her. The brutal facts of this terrifying ordeal were heard in court – during which Mackessy woke up and angrily caught Emma going through his phone.
“He woke up and caught me and got extremely angry. He snatched the phone off me and he started hitting me and punching me. So I ran to the bathroom and I held the door shut,” Emma said. Mackessy then grabbed a serrated bread knife from a drawer – and having managed to pull the bathroom door open – held it to Emma’s throat.
“He had the door pushed open after getting the knife out of the drawer. He got me by the shoulder and he pulled me out of the bathroom holding the knife up to my throat and my face and telling me that’s it now, I’m going to kill you,” Emma said.
“I started begging and pleading with him to put the knife down. I said I wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened and asked him to think of my kids. He left the knife down on the hall table and made me go upstairs.
“I tried to ring 999 but he took the phone off me. He smashed it off my head and then smashed it off the wall. There’s an imprint on the wall that’s still there.” Fearing for her life, Emma says the abuse continued all night – until eventually Mackessy fell asleep. She eventually managed to phone her father to tell him she had been assaulted – prompting her terrified ex to flee the scene.
“He took off in his car before my Dad got there. When he took off I phoned the guards. The detective and another guard came and they called an ambulance. They took the evidence and photos and I was taken to University Hospital Waterford. It feels now like when I talk about it, that it was somebody else’s life,” Emma said. However two weeks after the assault Emma got back with Mackessy – who the court heard dismissed what had happened as “very minor” and a “one off.”
Eventually, however, she found the courage to take the case, despite her continued fear of the man. “Its extremely difficult. I will say throughout the relationship the detective stayed in contact. But you know when you are in it you’re too afraid to leave. My family had given up on me. I would not listen. He had isolated me from everybody,” she explained.
Speaking about feeling let down by the justice system, however, Emma says she is hopeful that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will appeal the leniency of Mackessy’s sentence. “I do feel let down. I think things need to change and I also think there needs to be more support for the victims on the court date in the courthouse. You are left wide open to being re-victimised. They said they were going to look into appealing it.”
Despite her frustrations with the system, Emma says she is glad to have named and shamed Mackessy, and to finally have her own voice back.
“He silenced me for years of my life. I have broken that silence now. Freed as I am of him and as fearful as I am of the repercussions when he comes out, I can’t let that fear take over anymore. He took enough from me. He took my dignity and self-worth, my confidence! He took my whole life from me in two years and I never spoke up and now it’s my time. It’s my time to speak up and say who did this to me and say what he’s capable of.”