11 YEARS FOR VILE TAXI ATTACK ON EX Victim left with permanent scars after 10-minute assault

A MAN who violently assaulted his ex-partner in a locked taxi for ten minutes which left her with a permanent scar after repeated punches to her face has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Anthony Mockler (31) of Station Road, Kildare town, pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious harm to his former partner in a taxi on Basin Street, Naas, Co Kildare on November 5, 2023.

He also pleaded guilty to false imprisonment of the woman and threatening to kill her during the same incident as well as a separate charge of assault causing harm to a friend who came to her aid.

A sitting of Naas Circuit Criminal Court heard the victim required over 40 stitches to her face while the functioning of her mouth could also be affected from the extent of her injuries.

A plastic surgeon submitted a report which said she would have a scar which would be “visible forever.”

Mockler, a former Intel worker originally from Monasterevin, also admitted a series of charges of threatening to kill his victim on dates between October 23 and November 4, 2023 and associated breaches of a safety order.

In a victim impact statement, the 28-yearold woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said she believed she was going to die during the assault.

“I know he intended to kill me that night,” she remarked.

Looks

The victim said Mockler had also threatened to ruin her looks so that nobody else would want her.

The woman told gardaí that he called her a “whore” and “tramp” and said “die bitch” before adding: “This is for being with other men.”

The court heard the woman had been in a turbulent relationship with Mockler for four and a half years which had been characterised by constant threats of violence and aggression.

Detective Garda Donna Walsh had told the court the woman and a friend had been out socialising when Mockler contacted her about going home together.

However, the woman informed him that she would make her own way home.

A taxi driver who had brought Mockler to Naas recalled that he was “drunk and raging.” The accused spotted his ex-partner and got the taxi to follow her down Basin Street where he jumped out and pulled her by the hair and arms into the taxi which he then locked.

The woman’s friend was hit on the head by Mockler when she tried to intervene.

Judge Martina Baxter said the accused had engaged in a “horrific and ferocious” assault.

Sentencing him to 13 years in prison, the judge suspended the final two years on condition that he place himself under the supervision of the Probation Service on his release and be assessed for a domestic violence treatment programme.

She also praised the bravery and resilience of the woman and her friend.