{"id":344100,"date":"2026-03-13T11:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/344100\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:19:07","slug":"personal-trainer-at-women-only-gym-pleads-guilty-to-assaults-on-former-girlfriend-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/344100\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal trainer at women-only gym pleads guilty to assaults on former girlfriend \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A personal trainer at a women-only gym in D\u00fan Laoghaire<\/a> has been remanded in custody in advance of sentencing for assaulting his former girlfriend.<\/p>\n

John Peters (33), of Wellingtonia, Knockrabo Apartments, Dundrum, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court<\/a> to assault and assault causing harm to the woman on dates in 2022 and 2023. He also admitted causing criminal damage to her phone. <\/p>\n

Garda<\/a> Aisling Hawkes told prosecution barrister Jane McGowan that Peters and the woman were in a relationship for three years and began cohabiting in late 2021. The last year to 18 months of the relationship was quite turbulent, the court heard. <\/p>\n

Hawkes said the first assault occurred on July 10th, 2022, in the couple\u2019s apartment following an argument. The woman was dragged downwards by Peters and her face hit off the carpet, leaving her with blood coming from her nose. <\/p>\n

The assault also left the woman with a large bruise on her arm, a graze on her finger and damage to her eyebrow. The woman said \u201clook what you have done\u201d, and Peters replied that she had done it to herself, the court heard. <\/p>\n

The woman attended a work event the following day and others asked what had caused her injuries. She sent Peters a text about the comments and he sent a voice note in reply, telling the woman she was to say the injuries were caused by their dog. He had also told her to wear clothing to cover her arms.<\/p>\n

The court heard of a further incident on May 2nd, 2023, where a pyjamas top was ripped off the woman by Peters, leaving marks under her arms. <\/p>\n

Photographs of the woman\u2019s injuries from both incidents were handed into court.<\/p>\n

Peters also caused damage to the woman\u2019s mobile phone on June 6th, 2023. The woman outlined how Peters would delete numbers and messages from her phone. <\/p>\n

Hawkes said the relationship ended soon afterwards. The woman later gave a statement to garda\u00ed and handed over her mobile phone. Peters was arrested and invited for interview. <\/p>\n

He gave garda\u00ed a prepared statement in which he denied all the allegations and indicated his former partner was \u201cvolatile\u201d when he decided to end the relationship. <\/p>\n

He said his wellbeing had been affected and he was distressed. <\/p>\n

Counsel said the statement made adverse comments about the woman\u2019s character and outlined that she was not to be believed as she had certain mental health issues. <\/p>\n

The prepared statement was not read in full in open court but was handed into the judge.<\/p>\n

During a question-and-answer session with garda\u00ed, Peters said he thought the woman was bitter due to the relationship ending and denied causing her injuries, suggesting she had been drinking.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed played the voice note where he said she should indicate their pet had caused her injuries. Peters said he was not sure it was his voice, adding that it could be anyone or a generated voice.<\/p>\n

In her victim impact statement, the woman said the guilty plea did not feel like remorse and it had come too late for her. She described how she has been reliving events and wondering if she has the strength to keep living another day.<\/p>\n

She told the court these offences were not in the past for her but something she struggles with in the present, leaving her in fear and suffering panic attacks and flashbacks.<\/p>\n

Defence barrister Brian Gageby read an apology to the woman from Peters, who said he was sorry for his actions and the distress they caused. He said he accepts responsibility and it should not have happened. <\/p>\n

Gageby said Peters came from a generally supportive family background and had studied sport and exercise management. He is a personal trainer and businessman with a women-only gym in D\u00fan Laoghaire.<\/p>\n

Counsel said the behaviour was despicable and there was a suggestion of controlling behaviour which was aggravating. He said his client acknowledges that he acted in a way he should not have and that he has issues he needs to address. <\/p>\n

Judge Martina Baxter adjourned sentencing until June to allow for the preparation of a probation report on Peters, who has no previous convictions. She remanded him in custody and thanked the woman for her bravery in coming to court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A personal trainer at a women-only gym in D\u00fan Laoghaire has been remanded in custody in advance of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,13553,615,16089,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-344100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-circuit-court","tag-dublin","tag-dun-laoghaire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}