Man facing lengthy jail term for assault on ex-partner

A CO ARMAGH man has been warned that he is facing a long custodial sentence after beating his former partner like “a punch bag” and smashing a vase over her head.

Thomas Shane Maughan (24) of Fairgreen Avenue, Keady, denied assaulting the woman causing actual bodily harm on August 25.

Dungannon Magistrates Court heard from the victim, who explained she was in her Coalisland home when Maughan arrived extremely drunk, at 10.30pm.

He swore at her, then left saying he was going to the shop, but took the victim’s keys with him, so she could not leave.

On his return around two hours later, Maughan called the victim a whore and smashed a vase over her head. The blow caused her to fall to the ground where he kicked and thumped her repeatedly over the course of an hour, whilst shouting abuse.

She told the court: “He had no mercy. Even when I was on the floor, he kept kicking and beating me. He used my head like a punch bag.”

The victim sustained a cut to her face that needed stitches, and there was multiple bruising and swelling to her head, arms, hands and legs.

But Maughan denied he had even gone to the woman’s house, insisting he never left his Keady home that night.

He said his mother had brought him food shortly before midnight and, other than that, he saw no-one that evening. However, the defence did not call Maughan’s mother to the witness box to corroborate this, although she was in the public gallery.

District Judge John Meehan immediately convicted Maughan.

He said: “I have no difficulty in finding the victim gave satisfactory evidence. This was a savage, prolonged, violent attack on a woman in her own home.”

Adjourning for pre-sentence reports, the judge said he was “disposed toward a lengthy custodial penalty”.

Maughan is due back in court on February 14.