Former TV fitness instructor found guilty of attack on ex partner

Former TV fitness instructor Francis Usanga has been found guilty of attacking his former partner who told a court she was punched in the face when she confronted him about cheating.

Usanga, with an address at Lanesboro, Finglas, Dublin was accused of assault causing harm to mother-of-two Emma Murphy, a charge he had denied.

In the aftermath of the attack, Ms Murphy made a video about her ordeal which went viral on the internet.

She told Dublin District Court on Tuesday that if she hadn't spoken out she would have remained in an abusive relationship with Usanga (31).

The court was told Ms Murphy was punched in the face and left with a black eye after she confronted the defendant about cheating.

Judge Bryan Smyth did not accept the fitness instructor's claim he pushed her away because he was in fear of her.

Sentencing was adjourned to allow Ms Murphy prepare a victim impact statement.

The court heard the attack took place when they had a row outside his former workplace at FX Fitness gym in Santry, north Dublin on July 3th 2015.

In evidence, Ms Murphy said Usanga was the father of her two young children and they had been in a relationship for three and a half years which she described as “really bad, toxic”. On the day of the assault she went with her children in the car to the gym where he worked to talk to him about their relationship and his cheating, she said.

She asked him if there was a girl in the gym and he said “no”, she told the court. She said there was “loads of verbal abuse” and he had told her to f**k off after she asked for his phone. She told the court there had been “a crazy amount of cheating going on” and she wanted to call one of his friends to ask him if Usanga had been with him over the previous Father’s Day weekend.

She said she was disgusted when she looked at his phone and threw it back in his direction and he then punched her in the face.

She said she put ice on it and her brother Carl took photos of her injuries.

Cross-examined by defence solicitor Michael Hanahoe she agreed she had thought Usanga had been unfaithful.

The solicitor put it to her that she could not be placated and Usanga eventually gave her the phone she demanded. He suggested to her that she confronted him again but she replied, “I simply threw the phone, I could not take any more”.

She answered “not true” when the defence put it to her that Usanga had pushed her with the palms of his hands. “I was punched in the face because I threw the phone,” she said.

It was put to her that the defendant had been a celebrity and she broke into his Facebook account telling his 10,000 followers she had been assaulted by him and "that was the type of person he was". She agreed that she shared a video.

The defence suggested this an attempt to “destroy him” but she replied, “it was my attempt to get out of an abusive relationship, if I had not I would probably still be there.”

Usanga, in evidence, claimed he was in fear for his life of Ms Murphy and during an earlier meeting at Ikea that day she drove towards his car “and feigned to hit me but stopped at the last second”.

Asked by the prosecution solicitor if he was surprised by the injuries she suffered he said, “Yes, because I thought it was make-up”.

Pleading for leniency, the defence solicitor asked the judge to note that Usanga has already “suffered immeasurably” and has no prior convictions for this type of offence. He is now unemployed.