A 39-year-old man has been sentenced to six years in prison for the coercive control, assault causing harm, threat to kill and false imprisonment of his former partner over two-and-a-half years.
Gavin Doran, of Olive Crescent, Fruithill in Co Carlow, was found guilty in July of coercive control of 34-year-old Nicole Nolan between 1 January 2019 and 31 October 2021.
It was by unanimous verdict of the jury at Carlow Circuit Court.
The jury also found him guilty of threatening to kill her and false imprisonment from 30 October to 31 October 2021.
Doran had pleaded guilty to assault causing harm on the same dates.
The trial had heard that Doran and Ms Nolan had been in a relationship for five years.
It heard that their young son witnessed part of the assault on Ms Nolan in October 2021.
Ms Nolan had said that Doran had hit, bit and head butted her, and he had stuck fingers down her neck that night.
The jury heard in July that Doran had threatened to chop her up and put her in black bags.
In a victim impact statement, read by Detective Garda Eoin McGrath, Ms Nolan said she thought she was going to die the night of the assault, adding that she will "never be the same again".
Defence Counsel David Bulbulia SC asked the judge to consider Doran's good working history and that Doran is capable of making positive contributions to society.
Prosecuting Counsel Niall Storan BL raised Doran’s 19 previous convictions, including for false imprisonment, assault causing harm and threats to kill of a previous former partner in July 2014.
Mr Bulbulia told Judge Eugene O’Kelly that there was a connection with those convictions and him leaving the defence forces, which he was a member of from 2003 to 2014.
Judge O’Kelly told the court that Doran was an obsessive jealous man, who isolated Ms Nolan from friends.
He described the assault on her as vicious and he said Doran showed no great remorse for what he had done.
He sentenced Doran to three years for assault, three-and-a-half years for a threat to kill and three-and-a-half years false imprisonment to run concurrently.
He also sentenced Doran to two-and-a-half years for coercive control to run consecutively.
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