The wife of a former garda said he took her and her children "through horror after horror as a family" over the 12 years they were together and that he has changed their lives forever.
Mark Doyle, 38, pleaded guilty to six charges of assault causing harm to his former wife and his two stepchildren between 2008 and 2019.
Maeve Doyle described her former husband outwardly as "a respected member of the community but a monster in our home".
The litany of abuse, coercive control and domestic violence that Doyle subjected his wife and family to over a 12-year period was outlined today in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Doyle was a garda who served in Cabra, Blanchardstown and Ronanstown, before he was suspended and ultimately resigned after a criminal investigation commenced.
He admitted on various occasions to punching his wife Maeve in the side of the head perforating her eardrum, whipping her with his jacket and cutting her with a zip, throwing a chair at her, slapping her, kicking her in the side with boots as she lay on the ground, grabbing her by the hair and marching her down the hallway and choking her.
He also blamed her several times for his violence saying to her "see what you made me do, you just won't stop".
He also hit her children who are now adults, on one occasion laughing after he fired a pellet gun at one of the children and removing the pellet afterwards with a tweezers.
In her victim impact statement, Ms Doyle spoke about how as a garda he was a respected member of the community but a monster at home and that after the school had once become concerned by something a child had disclosed, he turned up in a garda car to a school meeting in his full garda uniform.
Ms Doyle said she could never have imagined "the fall out since I left him, the tsunami of issues, the problems at all levels".
She was she said an independent, confident, ambitious 26-year-old woman when she met him, but he left her "a shell of myself", who "couldn't concentrate" and was "constantly unwell".
Judge Martin Nolan remanded the former garda in custody for sentencing tomorrow.
