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Ian Doyle (34) beat his partner so badly he checked to see if she was still breathing afterwards.
Ian Doyle
A violent offender who beat his partner so badly he checked to see if she was still breathing afterwards and later threatened to cut her throat and eat her liver has had two years added to his jail term, after an appeal by the State.
Ian Doyle (34), who was on bail at the time for assaulting a different partner, did not let the woman leave the house for nearly a week following a series of attacks in her home in February 2023. Her four-year-old daughter was asleep upstairs at the time of this first assault.
The woman needed medical attention, but Doyle refused to let her leave the house and instead supplied her with paper stitches and painkillers, which he had bought at a nearby pharmacy.
Ian Doyle
News in 90 Seconds – November 20 2025
Doyle, of Cashel Avenue, Crumlin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting the woman causing her harm and threatening to kill or cause serious harm on dates in February 2023. Charges of assault causing harm and false imprisonment were taken into consideration.
Last November, Judge Orla Crowe set a headline sentence of five years. She reduced this to three years and six months, with the final six months suspended. She said the sentence would run consecutive to the term Doyle is already serving for assaulting a different partner, which is due to expire in April 2026.
Today the Court of Appeal concluded that the sentence imposed was too lenient and resentenced Doyle to five years’ imprisonment in respect of the two counts, to run concurrently with each other.
Delivering judgement, Mr Justice Alexander Owens said that Doyle “produced nothing” for the purposes of resentencing which would justify the court in suspending any part of the custodial element they imposed.
Mr Justice Owens said that the sentences will be consecutive to the term Doyle is currently serving for another matter. He said that the court was obliged to impose consecutive sentences because the index offences were committed while he was on bail.
Mr Justice Owens said that a headline sentence of seven years in custody was appropriate “to reflect the overall gravity” of the offending.
He said that the assault causing harm was found to be “so serious and exceptional as to not merit any reduction” on account of Doyle’s guilty plea, or on any mitigating factors which may exist.
The court made a downward adjustment of two years from the headline sentence of seven years in the case of the threat to kill offence. The judge said that this was to apply the principle of totality in consecutive sentencing.
He said that the court also took into account the “very minor matters in mitigation” and the personal circumstances of Doyle heard in the sentencing.
Mr Justice Owens said that the five-year term of imprisonment is greater than that which would have been imposed if Doyle had not committed the offence while on bail and had not been in an intimate relationship with the victim.