Man who threatened to kick baby out of pregnant girlfriend is jailed
A man who threatened to kick the unborn baby out of a terrified mother-to-be has been jailed for almost three years.
Francis McDonagh appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co. Donegal today charged with assaulting his pregnant partner.
The court heard how McDonagh kicked the woman and shouted "I'm going to kick it out of you" during a row.
The woman was five months pregnant at the time of the savage attack in January of this year.
Judge John Aylmer said it was extremely lucky that the accused of Earlsfort, Buncrana, had not caused serious injury to the woman or her unborn child.
He added that there was no doubt that the attack had also caused psychological harm to the woman.
He placed it on the upper end of the scale and said: "This case involved a serious breach of trust and is of an extremely serious and enduring nature."
During the assault, McDonagh also threatened to kill the woman.
As well as kicking her in the stomach he also punched her a number of times during the sustained assault.
The court was told that both McDonagh, aged 22, and his partner have serious alcohol and drug issues.
McDonagh had more than 15 previous convictions before coming to court on this matter.
Judge Aylmer sentenced McDonagh to two years and nine months for the brutal assault and backdated the sentence to January 10 when McDonagh went into custody.
