Kildare garda found not guilty of coercive control of ex-wife

A SERVING garda in Kildare was acquitted of coercive control of his ex-wife over a period of four years at a five-day trial in Naas Circuit Court after the jury returned a majority verdict.

However, the defendant was convicted on the lesser charge of criminal damage to a tree gifted to his wife by her mother because “it got in the way” of the lawnmower.

Allegations made against the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, include physical violence, verbal abuse in front of the children including calling her a “c*nt”, destruction of a sentimental tree, and threats to move back into the familial home after separation if she wouldn’t comply with his wishes.

The officer was charged under Section 39 of the Domestic Violence Act 2018, which is described as “knowingly and persistently engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour that has a serious effect on a relevant person”.

On the final day of the trial, Detective Sergeant Liam Lonergan from the Laois/Offaly Policing Division Protective Services Unit took the stand to sum up the case for Judge Elva Duffy, and it took the jury another two days to render their verdict.

DS Lonergan said he had been notified of the allegations in “statements made by (named wife) in May of 2022, and that he and a supervising Inspector went to the garda’s home in Co Kildare “in plain clothes and unmarked cars” before taking him to Tullamore Garda Station as a professional courtesy, having taken his phone at the house.

“He said the arrest was a farce, and should’ve been by appointment,” said DS Lonergan. 

“He said he heard we had looked at phones of the victim’s sister and mother, and then he gloated that he’d hit a nerve with me by knowing this.” 

The officer was interviewed in Tullamore over 11 hours, and his solicitor eventually gave DS Lonergan the password for his client’s phone.

In his statement read by prosecuting barrister Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC, the defendant claimed: “She has persistently gone after me, I’ve been domestically abused.” 

“I told him I was assaulted by that woman at a wedding and got a split lip and got a black eye (on named holiday).” 

“She wanted custody of the kids, and the house and wants to destroy me,” he quoted the defendant.

“I was putting her to bed when she was drunk at the wedding, and she didn’t want to go.

“She didn’t like being told she embarrassed me at (the location) wedding, and she swung at me and hit me with her ring finger.

“This narrative she’s spinning does not tally,” his statement alleged.

“She threatened to report me to the guards, and had that dangling over me, and that’s controlling,” Mr Ó Dúnlaing continued reading.

He then suggested counselling but said that she said she didn’t want to be with him anymore.

He said: “She told the jury I strangled the child, that woman is ridiculous.” He said that because of his shiftwork he gets to do school-runs and described himself as “primary caregiver,” but conceded “she is a wonderful parent, not lesser”.

“She expects me to relinquish the house and said he had the biological reason to be the primary caregiver,” he said.

He pointed out that his ex-wife earns substantially more than him.

“I can’t afford a place in this market … she has means, so why is she staying in the house? She’s in control,” he alleged.

He admitted moving out because “being under each other’s feet wasn’t helping”.

He said: “She accused me of bullying and bad behaviour, and badmouthed me to the neighbours, and they said I assaulted her.” He described her communications as “unhelpful” and claimed he was “a big fan of counselling”.

“If we could’ve been friends in a sexless marriage, I could’ve taken that,” he said. 

“She made three attempts at getting safety and protection Orders … and she recently said she would make my career very difficult.” 

He did concede to Mr Ó Dúnlaing: “The majority of what you say is what she is saying.

“I have called her names, but not in front of the kids.

“She accused me of poisoning the kids against her … and once in an argument I called her a c*nt.” 

He denied intimidating her with dogs, saying: “I was putting the dogs in the run. The idea that I went to the back door with two dogs is ridiculous, and that she only just got out the back to her car.

“I did say I’d be better off throwing her phone down the toilet.

“When she said she’d drive to the canal and commit suicide, and I did say we’d be better off.” 

“What about the tree dug up? The clothes thrown on the bed?” asked Mr Ó Dúnlaing.

“The tree was in the way of the lawnmower,” he said.

“The clothes? When I moved into the small room the wardrobes were full of her winter clothes, I was only making room.

“I’ve never hit her … I don’t know half the things she’s getting up to … stay in your room when it’s not your day with the kids … and her room twice the size…she’s been deliberately misleading.

“Barraging her with calls? Jeez! Ten texts a day is hardly that.” 

In cross, his barrister Damien Colgan BL put it to DS Lonergan that: “There must be evidence of control and coercion, and from her main statement there wasn’t any.” 

Mr Ó Dúnlaing was quick to counter.

“The legislation says either control or coercion. If his actions caused her to change her routines, this is prima facie evidence of coercion, and I believe it to be at the higher end,” he said.

“His demands were persistent and constant…and it’s this pattern, that ‘if you don’t do ‘x’ I’m moving back in’ that proves this,” he added.

“Little acts of coercion are like a woodpecker, and he clearly did not take this well being told this is not for me,” he said to the jury.

“Eating meals in her room constantly for two years?

“When was he Dr Jeckyll, and when was he Mr Hyde?

“All of these small acts turn him into Mr Hyde.

“The tree she got from her mother and planted it, but coincidentally, when she returns after four days it’s missing because it got in the way of the lawnmower.

“One of these on their own is not coercive, but all together?

“She felt anxious all the time, constantly stressed” After the verdicts were returned, sentencing for the criminal damage charge was adjourned until January.

Mr Ó Dúnlaing was assisted by Dan Boland BL, and instructed by Cairbre Finan, State Solicitor for Kildare North.

Sentencing on the criminal damage charge will take place in January.