The first man to be convicted of coercive control by a jury in Ireland has lost an appeal against his ten-and-a-half year sentence for making his partner's life a "horror show" with repeated violent assaults, threats, intimidation and humiliation.
Daniel Kane, 54, of Waterville Terrace, Blanchardstown in Dublin, repeatedly attacked the woman during their 20-month relationship.
Kane burned the woman's foot, cut her face with a pizza slicer, headbutted her when she was recovering from nasal surgery, and punched and stamped on her, causing multiple fractures.
He also stamped on her head and strangled her, leaving finger marks along her throat.
After he was charged with the attacks, Kane also threatened while in custody to send explicit images of the victim to her family if she did not withdraw the case.
He was convicted by a jury in November 2020 of coercive control, intimidation, assault and 12 counts of assault causing harm.
The Court of Appeal today dismissed Kane's appeal as there had been no error in principle by the trial judge when sentencing him.
Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said that Kane had subjected the woman to a "campaign of fear and humiliation" causing her to be "fearful, submissive and on edge".
"The injured party made statements outlining common conduct on the part of the appellant, describing how she was living under the constant threat of violence, waking up daily not knowing if she would be beaten or not and how she would be awoken by the appellant roaring abuse and shouting into her face," Ms Justice Kennedy said.
"She described emotional abuse and that the appellant would insult her, using demeaning, aggressive and abusive language. She recalled an incident where she was made to sit in the front room of the apartment unclothed while the appellant berated her.
"The injured party also described controlling behaviour, that the appellant interfered with her relationship with her family and her access to her friends, his behaviour left her meek and submissive and had a serious impact upon her."
She described how she was constantly on edge, walking on eggshells, waiting for the next act of violence," the judge said.
Ms Justice Kennedy said the grounds of the appeal against severity of the sentence were that the trial judge "failed to have proper and adequate regard to the proportionality of the totality of the sentences imposed in all the circumstances of the case, in particular, the accused's age, previous good character and personal circumstances".
However, she described Kane's behaviour as "prolonged, oppressive, domineering, manipulative and frequently brutal - psychologically and physically - designed to humiliate and degrade her and place her in constant fear."
"He used different methods of controlling and coercive conduct - violence and threats of violence, humiliation and verbal emotional abuse.
"His moral culpability was high and correctly found to be so by the sentencing judge" and the court found it was "difficult to see how the overall, ultimate sentence of ten-and-a-half years of actual incarceration is disproportionate".
The Court of Appeal upheld the sentence.
