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A judge has jailed an Ennis father for five and a half years who endangered the life of his three-and-a-half-month-old daughter when he hung her upside down by one leg over a river.
In Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Brian O’Callaghan imposed a combined five-and-a-half-year term on the 29-year-old for guilty pleas related to endangering and threatening to kill his daughter and the assault that caused harm. to the baby’s mother. last April.
Judge O’Callaghan imposed a four-year prison term for endangering and threatening to kill her baby and a three-year prison term for consecutive assaults on the woman.
Judge O’Callaghan suspended the last 18 months “to encourage rehabilitation” of the man who appeared in court via video link from prison.
The judge described one of the two assaults by the man on the mother in front of her baby as a “beating of cruel and barbaric punishment” where the man inflicted more than 20 belts with a stick on the back of the woman’s legs.
The “premeditated assault” on the woman occurred the day before the confrontation with Gardaí over the couple’s baby.
At 2 a.m. on April 11, a member of the Garda Armed Response Unit (ARU) shot the man in the back of an ambulance at Friar’s Walk in Ennis as members of the ARU rescued the baby.
The rescue was captured on CCTV of the ambulance and the ARU’s actions ended a tense three-and-a-half hour standoff that involved trained Garda negotiators, paramedics, Garda members and members of the Fire Service of Clare.
During that time, there were several flash points, including one where the man escaped from the Gardaí to the Fergus River and mounted a wall overlooking the river at Wood Quay and hung the baby face down with one leg over the water.
In her statement on the impact of the victim, the mother of the baby (19 years old) said: “I thought I was going to kill her and I would never see her again.”
Garda Barry Comber told the court that the situation at the river wall lasted 12 minutes and that paramedics, gardaí and members of the fire service arrived at the scene “anticipating the worst.”
Earlier, the man had taken the baby through the village followed by Gardaí and paramedics and had told Gardaí “we are going to die tonight”.
The baby was not injured in the incident, he is thriving today and Judge O’Callaghan praised the baby’s “resilience” in court.
The confrontation was sparked by the girl’s mother who sought Garda’s help after she was assaulted twice by her then-partner and the baby’s father.
In the first assault, Judge O’Callaghan told the court that the man had carried out “a punitive beating” on the woman.
Judge O’Callaghan described how on April 9, the man led his then-partner in a ruse to an old courtyard on the grounds of the now-closed Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital on Ennis’s Gort Road. The two of them had their baby with them in a stroller.
Judge O’Callaghan testified that the man used a stick to hit his then-partner and inflicted more than 20 belts on the back of his legs.
He said: “She fell to her knees, bruised and in pain and the photos show the extent of the damage to the back of her legs.”
Judge O’Callaghan stated that what happened “was nothing less than a premeditated and barbaric beating by a male partner on a female partner.”
Describing the attack as “gruesome,” Judge O’Callaghan said the assault “was almost like something from another place and another time.”
Judge O’Callaghan stated that the beating was a punishment for some suggestion that the woman may have been with someone else.
The judge described the attack as
He said: “Fortunately, the lady made a full recovery from the physical injuries, but psychologically, it is an incident she will never forget.”
The defendant’s attorney, Michael Collins SC, stated that the defendant pleaded guilty, expressed genuine remorse, and was cooperative with the Gardaí.
Mr. Collins claimed that his client told Gardaí in an interview after the confrontation that “no human being should do that to another human being.”
The man also told Gardaí: “It is not okay to hold my daughter by the ankles and swing her … If I had all the senses, I would not do all these things.”
The defendant has four children from a previous relationship and a grandmother of those children told the court in a letter that while she did not tolerate the things the man had done, “I feel that he is a good and decent human being.”
A family friend wrote to the court to testify: “I believe that in his right mind this man would never hurt any of his children, he loves his children and he has never hurt any on purpose.”
The man has 51 previous convictions for traffic and public order offenses representing 43 of the convictions.
Mr. Collins maintained that previous convictions would show that his client “is not someone of a violent or aggressive nature.”
Collins said that a psychiatric report made on his client referred to significant childhood trauma he suffered and the report indicated that this may have contributed to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Collins stated that drinking and drugs were not a factor in the confrontation with Gardaí.
Judge O’Callaghan reversed the sentence until April 11, when the defendant was taken into custody.
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