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A DOMESTIC ABUSE charity has said that a substantial sentence given to a man convicted of the coercive control of his former partner “acknowledged the severity of the crime and its life-denying impact on victims”.
Earlier today at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Daniel Kane (52) was sentenced to ten-and-a-half years in prison for the coercive control of his former partner.
This is the State’s first coercive control conviction following a trial.
During a 20-month relationship, Kane was found guilty of repeatedly attacking the woman, including burning her foot, cutting her with a pizza slicer, headbutting her in the face while she was recovering from nasal surgery and stamping on her arm causing her multiple fractures.
On another occasion he stamped on her head and strangled her, leaving finger marks along her throat. After being charged with these attacks Kane threatened to send explicit images of the victim to her family if she did not withdraw the charges.
In her victim impact statement the woman told the court she “might be dead or in a vegetative state” if doctors and gardaí had not intervened to get her away from Kane.
The CEO of Safe Ireland Mary McDermott said that the deep drivers of these behaviours rest on “toxic gender expectations and entitlements”, shown in this case by the fact that the perpetrator “showed no remorse or sense of profound wrong-doing”.
“This sentence is a shot across the bow to all abusers,” she said.
It tells them very clearly that they can no longer control, stalk, assault, isolate or degrade a woman with impunity. What was once secret and privatised, is now public.
In cases of domestic abuse, perpetrators often seek to keep things private and secret in order to continue the abuse.
“In Ireland, the coercion and assault of any human being is a crime. Living in a ‘lockdown time’ we are gaining ever greater understandings of these household traumas and imprisonment.
“We believe it sends a strong message to women who are experiencing abuse and control, to those around them, and to their communities, to speak openly.
You do not have to live in an oppressive household. We are learning to name these situations accurately. You will be supported and believed. Our judicial system recognises this crime as an extremely serious threat to the life and well-being of women.
Sarah Benson, CEO of Women’s Aid also gave her reaction to today’s sentence.
“Coercive control is an insidious and harmful form of abuse.
Imagine if you had to explain every minute of your day spent outside the house. Explain what you are wearing and defend your decision making. If your phone bill was checked, and you had to account for every call. If you had to ask your partner for money to buy for food for your children. If you were afraid of your partner’s violent outbursts. If money for tampons was called an ‘extra’. If friends and family were made to feel so unwelcome they stopped calling by.
Both Benson and McDermott commended the woman for her courage in pursuing this case, despite coercion to drop charges.
Benson said: “We thank the woman at the centre of the case for her resolve throughout this process and wish her only happiness in life. Her actions, in the face of unimaginable intimidation and terror, will act as an example to other women currently trapped with abusive partners.”
McDermott also commended An Garda Síochána for their investigative work in ensuring “robust” evidence so that this case could be brought forward by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The woman at the centre of today’s court case encouraged other victims of domestic violence to seek help from services such as Women’s Aid and said they would be heard.
If you need help, support is available:
If you have been affected by domestic abuse and would like to talk, contact the below numbers or visit SafeIreland.ie.
With reporting from Brion Hoban.
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That doesn’t make sense – if all they were worth is €100,000 , would it not better be to keep them for now?? As in they pretty much already brought all loss they possibly could…
I couldn’t make such bollox of something like that deal no matter how hard I tried.
The interesting thing though is that if you did it, you would loose your job for The 3p’s – piss poor performance. In Ireland no one will loose their jobs, no one will be held accountable for this latest disaster in our banks. Same shite for decades, when AIB went bust in the 80′s and were bailed out by Garret Fitz and FG, no one was held accountable, no bonuses were cut. Garrett got a non-recourse loan off the back of that in thanks. The banks own FG and FF, and neither party will say boo to them for any actions they take.
A.I.B. aren’t alone there, a fair chunk of the country lost varying amounts in Bulgaria, thinking it was the next property bubble.
40 grand for a single room (sorry, studio!) with jacks off it, only about four hours by road from the nearest airport, and populated with surly youths and opportunistic taxi drivers.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t too dissimiliar to the Irish property market in parts, at all!
Except for the price that is. But 230 million down to a hundred k is hard to beat!
So many people have lost their investments in Bulgarian property, so many have lost their investments in AIB shares…but at least the directors are still well paid!
This should have been listed for sale in the Irish Papers first , Minister reprimand this official please , any more surprises !
Do you really think anyone in Ireland would invest €35,100,000 in a Bulgarian bank riddled with debt?
If someone is willing to pay 100k surely they intend to turn profit so why AIB can’t? Are they stupid or what? Why this wasn’t offered for sale here???
Because the people that were investing were taking on a heap of debt.
Yes Sean, yes they are!
I can understand at some stage having to cut your losses but I would like to know if any of the “lads” made a nice profit on this deal.
Bunch of useless gangsters and morons, all of them
Can’t say I’m crying any tears for them, except that no doubt they’ll find some way of making the taxpayer foot the bill for the loss.
*facepalm
This stinks, sold to the girlfriend ? The AIB executives involved should be named and shamed. A file should be sent to the DPP but it will sit there with the rest.
If AIB and Bank of Ireland or Anglo Irish Directors start going to jail, they are going to take a lot of FF and FG TD’s with them. They aren’t going to allow that, better to just over look the free loans and debt cancellations that the banks gave to Taoiseach’s such as Haughey and Garrett Fitzgerald.
have your say