A JUDGE jailed a Limerick man for eight weeks after hearing how, in contempt of a court safety order, he punched his ex-partner twice in the face in an unprovoked attack.
In a case which was heard in camera – meaning neither party can be identified – Judge Patricia Harney heard evidence from the woman who was subjected to the attack.
She told the Limerick District Court that on December 8 she was “getting off the bus with my son. He came up to me and hit me two digs in the face.”
The woman told Judge Harney that she had been previously granted a court safety order after the man threatened to break the windows in her home.
“He said he was going to kill me,” she told the court.
The woman said that the accused was not the father of her son and they had separated last July.
“He just won’t leave me alone,” she said.
The accused man’s solicitor told Judge Harney that his client’s “first instruction to me was to apologise” to the woman he had assaulted.
The man’s solicitor said that his client had been arrested last week on foot of breaking the safety order and that “this is his first time in custody. He had a serious accident as a younger man and suffered a brain injury.”
“He has been homeless and now has an apartment through Focus Ireland. He knows he is at risk of losing that if he is in custody”.
Judge Harney told the solicitor that “your client had better get used to custody. This lady got a safety order on October 16 and he broke it on December 8.”
The judge sentenced the man to four weeks in jail for making threats and eight weeks for the assault, with the sentences to run consecutively.
She set bail for an appeal at €250 and made a condition that the man stay away from the assault victim and all members of her family.
