A judge has jailed a 49-year-old man to four years and eight months in prison for false imprisonment and assault causing harm to his ex-partner during a ’terrifying ordeal’ at her home in west Clare last September.
At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford imposed a 64-month prison sentence on Kevin Murphy - formerly of Querrin, Kilkee - and suspended the final eight months.
At the sentencing hearing, it was confirmed that Mr Murphy is a convicted rapist and received a nine-year prison term in 1998 for the 1994 rape offence.
During the incident on September 5th last, Mr Murphy pushed his ex-partner into a downstairs bedroom and pushed her face-down onto a bed where he restricted her hands with cable ties and tied them behind her back.
Det Garda Deirdre Collins told the court last year that the woman was “terrified” that Mr Murphy “was going to rape her or kill her”.
Det Garda Collins said that the woman was too terrified of Mr Murphy to come to court but in her victim impact statement read out by State counsel, Lorcan Connolly SC (Instructed by State Solicitor, Aisling Casey), the woman said: “It is a very strange feeling to be attacked and in fear of your life knowing that you are powerless to stop it. It was almost a feeling of acceptance.
“There is not a whole lot you can do when you are restrained the way I was. I remember thinking “okay, if this is going to happen I need to go quietly because as long as my son is sleeping he is some bit safe," she said.
“I can honestly say that the last 18 months or so has left me damaged. From his countless extreme and bizarre lies, his cheating, manipulation, continual suicide threats to the attack, my mind has been just worn out and broken. I am on edge all the time," she added.
She said that Murphy had a “look of evil in his eyes the night he attacked me”.
The woman said: “Time will heal, but I am already fearful of Mr Murphy being released. I no longer feel safe or peaceful. The physical injuries have healed, but mentally and emotionally I am exhausted."
The two were in a relationship for seven years and have a son aged five.
The woman ended the relationship early last year after Mr Murphy’s cheating, but by last September relations had improved, and he was helping out with the care of their son.
Det Garda Collins said Murphy assaulted the woman at her home shortly after she rejected his advances for a kiss and to rekindle their relationship.
Murphy tied the woman’s hands with cable ties, but he released her about an hour and a half later, after he had calmed down, and she persuaded him to undo the cable ties as they were hurting her.
The woman managed to raise the alarm through a text to a friend who in turn alerted the Gardaí after Mr Murphy had taken his medication and had fallen asleep.
Det Garda Collins said that the woman believes that it was a premeditated attack.
She said that Murphy told her “in the kitchen after the ordeal that he had planned it but didn't think it would go the way it did”.
At the Garda interview, Murphy made full admissions to false imprisonment, tying the woman’s hands and hurting her.
Counsel for Mr Murphy, Pat Barriscale BL (instructed by solicitor, Daragh Hassett) said that Murphy did not disagree with any details in the woman’s witness statement and was deeply ashamed of his actions towards someone he cared about deeply.
In a report handed into court, Murphy said: “I hate what I did to her. I hate myself for it. I hate that I done that to a woman I care about. I will do anything I can to deal with this.”
He added: “It is not who I am. She didn't deserve what happened to her.”
Mr Barriscale said that his client maintains his innocence concerning the rape conviction from 1998.
In sentencing, Judge Comerford said that he wouldn’t add to the sentence because of the rape offence as it is 30 years old, but it did limit the amount of time he could reduce the sentence by way of mitigation.
