A MAN WHO kicked his former partner in the face during an attack and told her that “tonight was her execution” has been jailed for five years.

Barry O’Donoghue (38) of Mourne Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, was convicted by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of assault causing harm and threat to kill or cause serious harm at his address between 20 and 21 October 2016.

Judge Elma Sheahan sentenced O’Donoghue to five and a half years imprisonment for the threat to kill and three years imprisonment for the assault. She said both sentences will run concurrently with each other.

Judge Sheahan suspended the final six months of the sentence for a period of 12 months post-release, on condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for that period, follow all directions of the Probation Service and engage in anger management.

She also ordered that the accused make no contact with the injured party, save through solicitors.

Garda Keith O’Brien told Ronan Prendergast BL, prosecuting, that on the date in question a confrontation began between O’Donoghue and his former partner in his house.

Garda O’Brien said that when the woman tried to open the front door she was knocked to the ground by O’Donoghue and pulled back inside the house. He started to punch her at the bottom of the stairs and shouted that “she was only ever evil to him”.

O’Donoghue raised his right foot and kicked her in the face with full force. He brought her into the kitchen and continued to hit her there.

Garda O’Brien said O’Donoghue told her he had been planning the attack and that she was going to die. He said that “tonight was her execution” and asked if she would like to be shot.

He was holding a bread knife in his hand while making the threats, the court heard. The woman left the house while he was asleep and contacted gardaí.

O’Donoghue has no previous convictions and has been in custody since his conviction by a jury on 7 February last. He is originally from Co Carlow.

‘I don’t buy it’

In her victim impact statement, which she read out in court, the woman said she had to have surgery to repair her eye and that she had nerve damage to the left side of her face.

She said she did not know how she made it out of that night alive. She said she had a recurring nightmare in which she saw her gravestone with the date 20 October, which then disappears and she hears O’Donoghue’s voice telling her he would bury her where no one would find her.

The woman said she feared he would seek revenge due to her reporting what he did to her. After reading a letter of apology written by O’Donoghue, she said: “I don’t buy it”.

Breffni Gordon BL, defending, said his client came from an “impeccable background”. He said the court could infer this would be O’Donoghue’s “last offence” due to his age and his lack of any previous convictions.

Judge Sheahan said the court did not accept that the accused accepted responsibility for his actions as he appeared to maintain his version of events that he injured the woman recklessly.

She said that the failure for him to acknowledge his actual behaviour did not show remorse or insight.