Man guilty of assaulting his fiancee just minutes after their engagement

A MAN who admitted assaulting his fiancee just minutes after they got engaged in Londonderry on Sunday night has been handed a suspended jail sentence.

Sean Fahey (48), from Slievesnaght Road in Letterkenny, was given a two-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, at the city’s magistrates court yesterday.

He was also ordered to pay his now former fiancee compensation of £75.

A police officer told District Judge Michael Ranaghan that Fahey had a record of 198 reported incidents in the Republic and had 54 bench warrants issued for his arrest.

She said Fahey assaulted his then fiancee outside her home in the Ballymagroarty area by twisting her arm behind her back after they’d had an argument following their engagement just minutes earlier.

After the argument Fahey went to a nearby bar and got drunk.

His fiancee came into the bar and asked for her electricity card and told Fahey not to return to her home.

However, Fahey returned to her home where he found the victim standing in an alleyway with his belongings packed into a bag.

They had another row during which he grabbed her by the arm and threatened to have her shot.

The victim called the police and Fahey was arrested and later released on police bail.

One of his bail conditions was not to consume alcohol but when he was released from custody he went to Belfast and got so drunk in a bar that he fell off a bar stool and had to be treated in the Royal Victoria Hospital for a head injury he sustained in the fall.

Fahey was then arrested for breaching his no alcohol bail condition and brought to court yesterday where he was charged with assaulting his then fiancee.

Defence solicitor Seamus Quigley said Fahey had abstained from alcohol for four years before his weekend drinking binge following the arguments with his fiancee.

Mr Quigley added that the toxic relationship between Fahey and his victim was now over and they were no longer engaged.

“Ironically he was her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor and all he wants to do now is to return to Letterkenny and to resume his AA meetings,” he said.

As well as imposing the suspended sentence and compensation order on Fahey, District Judge Michael Ranaghan also imposed an 18-month restraining order on Fahey and ordered him not to contact his victim.

❝ All he wants to do is resume his Alcoholics Anonymous meetings