Man jailed for coercive control of his wife

A MAN who subjected his wife to years of physical abuse and coercive control has been jailed for a total of four years for what a judge described as serious acts of violence against an intimate partner.

Monaghan Circuit Court had heard how the wife of Martin Ward (27) once ran to a garda station barefoot with her pyjamas saturated in her own blood after he attacked her with a weapon.

Ward, with an address at The Elms, Lough na Glack, Carrickmacross, had pleaded guilty to the coercive control of his wife Chantelle between 2019 and 2022. He also pleaded guilty to an attempted robbery.

The court heard how Ward carried out a litany of attacks on his wife, including once leaving her with a black eye, slapping her in the face as she slept on another occasion, and, kicking her in the stomach when she was pregnant with one of their children. He also once threatened to stab her with a fork.

The court also heard how the defendant would take his wife’s mobile phone to isolate her from her family and friends, and take all her allowances and money to spend on alcohol for himself.

Frank Martin, BL, for the prosecution, outlined to the court how these offences occurred between the years 2019 and 2022.

In earlier evidence to the court, Sergeant Anthony Flynn, who is now retired, revealed how in the early hours of the morning on May 31, 2021, Chantelle Ward arrived at Carrickmacross Garda Station in a very distressed state.

He said Ms Ward had a laceration to her head, after she had been attacked with a weapon by her husband, and had run to the station barefoot.

The court heard that Ms Ward was in her pyjamas, which were “saturated” in blood.

“She was barely able to talk she was so distressed,” Sgt Flynn told the court.

The court heard that, after Martin Ward was subsequently arrested, he told gardaí he had downed 10 or 11 cans of Guinness on that night and couldn’t remember assaulting his wife.

The court also heard that Chantelle Ward later left her husband and never returned to him.

In a victim impact statement, read out on her behalf, Chantelle said she still suffered bad dreams about the abuse she had endured at the hands of her husband, even though it had been over two years since she last saw him.

“I never want to see Martin Ward again for the rest of my life,” her statement said.

“Leaving him was the best decision I ever made.”

However Ms Ward said she still gets nervous when walking the streets in case she sees him, but that she is happier and healthier since she left him.

The court also heard about an incident of attempted robbery by Martin Ward on May 7, 2022.

On that occasion, both he and his wife, who had been drinking earlier that day at a confirmation party, got into a man’s car uninvited.

Ward later grabbed that man by the throat and demanded €50 from him.

When the man later stopped his car at a bus station, he ran to another car, telling the driver: “That man’s going to rob me.”

The man was driven to Carrickmacross Garda Station to report the incident.

In sentencing Mr Ward at Monaghan Circuit Court last Thursday, January 29, Judge John Aylmer said he placed his offending at the upper end of the scale when it came to coercive control. The judge said that as this offence merited a maximum sentence of five years, he would consider imposing a sentence of four years, before mitigation. He said this included Ward's guilty plea, his lack of previous convictions for assault, a letter he had written detailing his remorse and the fact he was engaging positively with counselling services in prison.

Taking all that into account, Judge Aylmer issued a sentence of three years for the coercive control.

In relation to the attempted robbery, Judge Aylmer said he would place that at the lower end of the scale, imposing a sentence of two years and three months, to run consecutive to his other sentence.

However the judge said he would suspend the final 15 months of this sentence, on the condition that Ward abstained from drink and drugs and continued to engage with probation services.

“So you are getting a sentence in total of four years,” Judge Aylmer told the defendant.