A CO Clare man who left his girlfriend lying on a blood-soaked bed after knocking her unconscious and breaking her jaw in a “savage” assault has been jailed for a total of six years.
Rose McDonagh (29) had her jaw broken in four places and lost two teeth when she was attacked at the flat she shared with her boyfriend Thomas Molloy (19).
The assault took place one month after the mother of five had taken out a protection order against her partner, whom she visits in prison on a weekly basis.
Molloy, Gordon Drive, Ennis, pleaded guilty at Ennis Circuit Court to the assault causing harm on December 19th at Shanaway Road, Ennis, Co Clare.
Previously the court heard that Molloy had told a garda: “It’s a cruel, cruel world we live in, isn’t it?” after he had subjected his girlfriend to the beating.
Before imposing sentence at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Donagh McDonagh asked: “What type of man beats his girlfriend to a pulp and then leaves her with no medical attention? And he calls himself a man?”
At the last court sitting Judge McDonagh was told that Ms McDonagh, who has five children from a previous marriage, would require a metal plate in her jaw for the rest of her life.
The judge said it was a “savage beating” and described photographs of her face after the attack and the blood-sodden bed in her flat as “pretty graphic evidence” of what had occurred.
Judge McDonagh said he could not ignore this evidence even though Ms McDonagh told the court yesterday her jaw was perfect now and that she was still in a relationship with Molloy.
In her victim impact statement, she said the couple had an on/off relationship and said Molloy was “very bad” on alcohol and drugs at the time of the assault, but “normal” otherwise.
Judge McDonagh said alcohol was no excuse. He said Molloy had arrived home after a three-day drinking session with friends and committed the “brave act of hammering his girlfriend and leaving her injured until gardaí arrived”.
Lorcan Connolly, defending, described the assault as an “offence against a loved one and not a random act against a citizen”. He said it took place in a domestic setting following the consumption of an “unbelievable amount of drink and drugs”.
The court heard Molloy committed the assault during the term of a suspended three-year jail term, imposed in 2009 for criminal damage and public order charges.
Earlier yesterday, Judge Carroll Moran, who had imposed the three-year suspended sentenced, activated the jail term. He was “appalled” by the nature of the assault which was in clear breach of the terms of the suspended sentence.
Judge McDonagh later imposed a three-year consecutive jail sentence on the assault charge and ordered it served on completion of the other three-year sentence.