A man has been jailed for 17 years for the rape and coercive control of his then partner following \u201ca sustained and deliberate\u201d oppressive regime of her.<\/p>\n
The Central Criminal Court<\/a> heard that Maurice Magner, aged 44, formerly of Killavullen, Co Cork<\/a>, was found guilty of coercive control, two counts of rape, one count of oral rape, two counts of anal rape, and three counts of sexual assault between 2019 and 2021 at an address in Waterford.<\/p>\n It was indicated to the court that while the woman wishes to retain her anonymity, she is anxious that Magner be named in reporting the case.<\/p>\n Detective Garda Ann Marie Myler of the Divisional Protective Service Unit told Miranda Egan-Langley, prosecuting, that Magner and the injured party were in a relationship which began to deteriorate in 2019, and Magner began to coercively control the woman by having access to the password to her electronic devices.<\/p>\n The court heard that Magner controlled all facets of the woman\u2019s life, including removing lightbulbs to keep her in the dark and disconnecting the heating. She was not allowed to wear make-up, and he decided what clothes she would wear.<\/p>\n Magner opened her post and made threats against her and her family. Visitors were not permitted in the house, and after she had given birth, he told her she could not have painkillers as \u201creal women don\u2019t need painkillers\u201d. He also took her sanitary products away after she had given birth.<\/p>\n Det Garda Myer told the court that the woman was struck with a closed fist into her ribs, was pushed, shoved, and threatened. Magner led the woman to believe that there were cameras in the house and that she was being watched. He also made the woman stand in the hot press for hours.<\/p>\n The court heard that Magner had \u201crules\u201d and that if the woman did not follow them, she would be punished.<\/p>\n On three separate occasions, Magner carried out sexual offences against the woman. These offences included digital penetration, rape, oral rape, and anal rape. During one of the assaults, he dragged the woman, and on a second, he held her by the hair while raping her.<\/p>\n While Det Garda Myer gave evidence to the court, Magner broke down and wept in the box.<\/p>\n Sentencing the man on Monday, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said it was \u201ca sustained and deliberate\u201d behaviour by Magner \u201cdesigned to control and dominate all ordinary aspects of the woman\u2019s life\u201d including financial control, limiting her social contacts, and the imposition of domestic rules followed by consequences for non-compliance.<\/p>\n He said in relation to the sexual offending, it was \u201ccrystal clear\u201d that there was no consent and it was part of a \u201csustained campaign of oppression against her \u2014 for reasons that I utterly fail to comprehend\u201d, Mr Justice Hunt commented.<\/p>\n He said the law exists because it is recognised that there is \u201ca necessity of having a free choice in these matters\u201d and also in recognition \u201cof the bodily integrity of the person\u201d.<\/p>\n He set a headline sentence of 17 years in prison to \u201creflect the overall offending\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Justice Hunt said he intended to suspend the final two years of the term on condition that Magner agree to not contact the woman either directly or indirectly ever again \u2014 \u201cas a reassurance that when she hopefully puts her life together, that when he leaves prison \u2014 he will not cause her any difficulty\u201d.<\/p>\n However the case was adjourned for a short period when Magner refused to enter into that bond.<\/p>\n He returned and again refused to enter into the bond.<\/p>\n Mr Justice Hunt said he was imposing a prison sentence of 17 years but in fairness to Magner he would allow him to come back to court in the next 14 days to enter into the bond, should he wish to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said if he agreed to the terms, the final two years of the sentence would be suspended.<\/p>\n Mr Justice Hunt said the woman was \u201cclearly a very strong and organised person\u201d and he said he had no doubt at all about her ability to put her life back on track free of Magnier\u2019s oppressive regime.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is a person of considerable courage and just like the jury, I accept the impact of his regime upon her,\u201d the judge continued.<\/p>\n The injured party in this case took to the witness box at a previous sentence hearing and read her own victim impact statement, which said: \u201cI am the victim of sexual violence and coercive control. I was trapped, isolated and threatened.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Prior to meeting Magner, I was a social and confident girl who enjoyed spending time with family and friends. He cut me off from all of them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She said: \u201cI tried everything to make him happy and keep my family safe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The woman spoke of being denied basic pain medication and sanitary products. She said Magner would leave the house for days and would remove the lightbulbs and disable the heating.<\/p>\n She told the court that she was frequently locked out of the house and had to walk the streets.<\/p>\n \u201cHis money was his, and my money was his,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was merely an object to be used, abused and destroyed,\u201d she said. She told the court that fear is hard to turn off and she described how \u201crape robbed me of a dignity that I will never get back\u201d.<\/p>\n She concluded by telling the court: \u201cI will always be in desperate fear of Magner.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Det Garda Myer agreed with Michael Delaney, defending, that his client has little contact with his family and has worked as a plumber, a DJ, and a salesperson.<\/p>\n The garda agreed with counsel that after Magner left the home he shared with the woman, he lived in his van and has been in custody since January 19 of this year.<\/p>\n Mr Delaney said his client was a person of previous good character and had worked for most of his adult life.<\/p>\n Counsel said that after Magner left the home he shared with the woman, he fell on hard times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has been jailed for 17 years for the rape and coercive control of his then partner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[191786,79,54,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-513079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-waterford-news","tag-cork-news","tag-courts","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513079","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=513079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}