A Donegal man has been charged with coercively controlling his partner.
The man, who is in his 20s, was before Letterkenny District Court. The defendant cannot be named due to legal reasons to protect the identity of the victim in the case.
Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that the man coercively controlled the woman during a period of dates unknown between January 2019 and September 2022.
The court heard that the man did not permit the woman to meet any family without her.
The woman had to be home by a certain time or the man would constantly ring her. Sergeant Collins told how the woman began to ignore school friends as she was in fear.
He made threats to harm himself and her and would constantly monitor her social media, questioning her activity.
The court was told that the man would control what clothes she wore and would constantly check her online banking and query her spending.
The man was charged that on dates between January 2019 and September 2022, at a number of locations in Donegal, that he did knowingly and persistently engage in behaviour that was controlling or coercive and which had a serious effect on the woman and the behaviour was such that a reasonable person would consider it likely to have a serious effect on a relevant person.
The charge is contrary to section 39 (1) and (3) of the Domestic Violence Act, 2018.
On a date in 2022, the man told the woman that he would “blow the head off” her new boyfriend. He lifted up his top and the woman saw an object which she believed was a weapon, which put her in fear.
He was charged with an offence contrary to section 5 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997 and with an offence contrary to section 33 (1) of the Domestic Violence Act 2018 in relation to that date..
The man is also accused of breaching a protection order granted to the woman in 2022 when he sent a large number of abusive and threatening text messages to her. He also sent text messages from different numbers and made contact via a Facebook page.
On another date, in 2022, the man breached a protection order by sending what were described as a large number of abusive texts. On the same date, he also attempted to ring the woman five times. The woman reported that the calls and texts put her in fear.
Judge Éiteáin Cunningham sought a victim impact statement and the matter was adjourned.
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