A Dublin father-of-seven kicked, punched and beat his wife with a wrench and some cable wire, knocking out two of her three remaining teeth, a court has heard.
Mark Doyle (45) also attempted to strangle his former partner with cable wire during a series of assaults which his own barrister described as “savage”.
Doyle, of Barnaville Park, Ballyfermot has been sentenced to six years in jail at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for three counts of assault causing harm.
Passing sentence on Thursday, Judge Martin Nolan said the description of the attacks was “pretty harrowing” and that Doyle deserved a severe custodial sentence.
Judge Nolan said Doyle had a “habit” of attacking and beating his unfortunate former partner with various weapons including a wrench and cable wire, causing her to repeatedly fear for her life.
The court also heard that Doyle threatened to pour boiling water and sugar over his wife’s face so that “another man isn’t going to look at you again.”
Facial swelling
Garda Dabhach Dineen told Jennifer Jackson BL, prosecuting, that he spoke to the victim on May 16th, 2020, when she reported with severe facial swelling and a bloodshot eye.
The woman told Gda Dineen that the previous evening, the couple had been in their inner city apartment when Doyle had asked her if she had been with a certain man on Facebook, which she denied.
She said Doyle then took a cable wire from a drawer and hit her all over her body, and also boxed her in the face three or four times.
The woman said Doyle tied the cable round her neck and when she tried to pull it off, he boxed her hand away and threw her onto the floor.
The victim told gardaí that Doyle got on top of her and that she can’t remember how many times he punched her with his two hands as she was in and out consciousness.
She said Doyle was shouting “I’m going to murder you, I’m going to kill you,” and that when gardaí knocked at the door to ask about their eldest daughter who was missing, she didn’t tell them what had happened as she was afraid of her husband.
Doyle was later arrested two weeks later and denied hitting his former partner.
A second attack took place in the couple’s apartment in Dublin’s inner city less than a fortnight later on June 23rd, 2020.
The woman said Doyle had put a pot of water on the cooker and when she asked him why, he started talking about sugar and water that would make her skin peel and said, “another man isn’t going to look at you again.”
Blood-stained blanket
She said Doyle punched her and swiped at her chest with a pen, causing a laceration, and then hit her in the thighs with a brush.
Garda Brian O’Carroll told the court that Doyle was on bail for these attacks when the following year on April 11th, 2021, gardaí were called to the apartment and could hear a woman screaming.
The door was blocked with heavy pieces of timber and furniture but when gardaí eventually got it open they found the woman cowering under a blood-stained blanket.
Garda Carroll said there were fragments of the woman’s teeth on the couch and that she was bleeding heavily from the mouth, with a large cut on the top of her head which was also bleeding.
She was taken to hospital by ambulance.
The woman later told gardaí that herself and Doyle had had “a bit of an argument about other men” and that he had picked up a wooden stick from one of the bunk beds and hit her again and again all over her head and body; at one point breaking the stick over her body.
The court heard Doyle also stamped on her and punched her and used a wrench to hit her, at one point knocking out two of her remaining three teeth.
Rónán Prendergast BL, defending, said Doyle acted out of “paranoia and jealousy” and described the assaults as “savage”.
He said his client had been dependent on alcohol and other substances and his eldest daughter was missing at the time of the initial offence.
Mr Prendergast pointed out that the victim was herself serving a two-year sentence at Mountjoy Prison on another matter.
The court heard that the victim declined the judge’s invitation to give evidence or to make a victim impact statement, saying that she did not wish for the father of her children to be locked up for years.
Mr Prendergast said Doyle was a member of the Travelling community and one of 21 siblings. The court heard he lost both his parents when he was aged 13.
Judge Nolan sentenced Doyle to two sentences of three years each, to run consecutively, and backdated the prison term to July 28th, 2021.
