The judge was fair .. but there are no winners here today
Survivor of vicious abuse sees ex-husband caged
BRAVE assault victim Meav Mcloughlin-doyle said there are “no winners” as ex-husband and former Garda Mark Doyle was jailed for six years.
Doyle, 38, with a previous address at Corbally Paddocks, Newbridge, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty to five counts of assault causing harm to Meav and two counts of assaulting two of her sons causing them harm on dates between September 2007 and August 2019.
Following the verdict Meav thanked gardai and Women’s Aid for all their support.
She told reporters gathered outside the Criminal Courts of Justice yesterday: “Yes I was [happy with the verdict]. I think Judge Nolan was fair.
“At the end of the day this whole thing is extremely sad. There’s no winners here today.”
Meav added that it was hard to come forward, and said her ex-husband’s job as a garda made it particularly difficult – as he was considered a person of authority within the community.
She said: “It was extremely difficult from that aspect [him being a garda]. It was always hanging over us, the children and myself knew that all the time. He was a well-liked person in the community. Everyone knew he was a guard.
“When one of my children tried to disclose he arrived at the school in a garda car, garda uniform and passed it off as being like teenage exaggeration.
“An authority figure doing that holds weight. It hasn’t been easy.
SUPPORTIVE
“I was a totally different person in 2020 but again it’s the gardai that I dealt with that led me through the process and were extremely supportive.
“So I would definitely say to anyone living in an abusive relationship please come forward. You will be supported and be listened to.”
In an appeal to women across Ireland who are victims of abuse she said: “Please, please, please come forward. You’ll get all the support. It took me a long time. I hid because of the job and because of the shame of domestic violence.
“I feel optimistic now for the future. We have a lot of healing to do.”
Doyle, who had been stationed at Ronanstown, Blanchardstown and Cabra, was suspended by An Garda Siochana and later resigned from the force before pleading guilty on the day of his scheduled trial last October.
He was a member of the Defence Forces between 2002 and 2009 and a garda between 2009 and 2023.
Reading her victim impact statement in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this week, Meav Mcloughlindoyle said her ex-husband took herself and her children through “horror after horror” during the 12 years they were together.
She described a relationship marked by control, violence, coercion and abuse during which she and her children lived in “constant terror
I feel optimistic for future. We’ve a lot of healing to do
MEAV MCLOUGHLINDOYLE ON HER PLANS
and fear”. Meav added: “He was a respected member of the community but a monster in our home. He used his position to shake off any suspicion.”
Sentencing Doyle yesterday, Judge Martin Nolan said Doyle engaged in “reprehensible” behaviour which involved a “pattern of violence” against his partner and her two sons. The judge said: “For reasons known only to Mr Doyle, he couldn’t control his temper and blamed his wife for his own bad behaviour.”
The judge said it was “noteworthy” that Doyle was a former member of the Defence Forces and a member of An Garda Siochana. He noted the offending took place in front of children at times.
He said: “It was an oppressive house to live in. Meav Doyle bears the scars of all of this.” He handed down a global sentence of six years, backdated from Thursday when Doyle went into custody.
The court heard that Doyle once showed up to a parent teacher meeting in his garda car and uniform, after the school had expressed concerns over a disclosure by a child.
Ms Mcloughlin-doyle said in her impact statement: “Home is supposed to be a place of support and safety, but it was the opposite. Our home was a place of fear, humiliation, violence and walking on eggshells.”
Ms Mcloughlin-doyle said she could never have imagined the “tsunami of issues” and constant fight to survive that she and her children had endured as fallout of the abuse.
“The trauma will last a lifetime,” she said, adding that the abuse had turned her from a confident, outgoing, ambitious woman into a shell of herself, suffering from anxiety, panic attacks and depression.
Her children suffer from numerous mental health difficulties including anxiety, self-harm ideation, and anger issues, the court heard.
She concluded her victim impact statement with a powerful description of domestic violence as a “targeted reign of terror”.
Doyle is now in a relationship with another woman who wrote a reference for him, the court heard.