EX WAS ‘TOSSED AROUND LIKE A RAG DOLL’

COURT HEARS DEFENDANT BARRICADED HIMSELF INTO HIS HOUSE AFTER GARDAÍ ARRIVED ON SCENE OF ASSAULT

A FORMER girlfriend who agreed to bring dog food to her ex-boyfriend’s house ended up being subjected to a vicious two and a half hour assault in which she believed she was going to die.

Det Sgt Michael Corbett told Judge Sean O’Donnabhain that the injured party, Zoe McDermott was “tossed around the room like a rag doll” in the home of Michael McDonnell.

Mr McDonnell (27) of 10 Sandfield Terrace, Mallow pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm at his home on January 20/21 as well as falsely imprisoning and threating to kill or cause her serious harm.

Det Sgt Corbett said the defendant and injured party had been in a relationship which ended in December 2014.

However, Mr McDonnell had phoned her on the date of the assault to ask her to bring dog food to his house and she agreed. They had chatted and she had told him she was planning to go to Barcelona. The court heard, when she entered the house, Mr McDonnell had locked the door behind her.

“All of a sudden he attacked her, punched her in the face, knocked her back on the couch. Over the next one and a half to two hours, she was beaten about the head, stamped on, a sheet was put over her head. She tried to get out a few times but failed. That made him more angry,” he said.

Mr McDonnell had wanted cigarettes and drove her in his car and warned her not to get out. She did and hid in a toilet but he banged on the door and she eventually emerged.

When they returned to the house, the attack resumed once again – including having a pillow put over her head which caused her to stop breathing and almost pass out.

When Mr McDonnell, who was wearing only his boxer shorts went to a bedroom, the injured party managed to flee the house and run to a neighbour.

She was brought to Mallow General Hospital but was immediately transferred to CUH such was the extend of her injuries.

When Gardai arrived, the defendant barricaded himself inside the home and a standoff ensued over the next hour and a half. A trained hostage negotiator was at the scene.

However, Det Sgt Corbett who knew Mr McDonnell for many years phoned him on his mobile and persuaded him to leave the house.

Judge O’Donnabhain held high praise for Det Sgt Corbett.

“We are a country that has gone totally overboard with minutiae and bureaucracy but Sgt Corbett stood and used his experience as a guard and used it to the benefit of the accused, the victim and society,” he said.

As reported in The Irish Examiner, the defence counsel Tom Creed said the accused had severe problems with alcohol and drugs and was dealing with them through counselling in Cork Prison.

Ms McDermott kept some of her family away from her hospital bedside for up to three weeks after the assault, as she was afraid of the shock which would be caused to them by seeing her with her injuries.

Mr McDonnell said: “I am disgusted with myself, to do this to a woman, especially to someone I loved deeply.”

He was sentenced to seven years in prison but the last two were suspended.