A man who beat his girlfriend around the head with a stone and kicked her in the face has been jailed for one year and eight months.
Christopher Strickland, aged 37, kicked the woman in the face with force after knocking her to the ground, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard, reports Breaking News.
Eyewitnesses to the late-night assault heard Strickland calling the woman names and saying “I’m going to fucking kill you.”
Strickland of Sundrive Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the woman on Kimmage Road, Lower Kimmage, on 3 March 2019, reports Breaking News.
Detective Garda Jason O’Carroll told the court that gardaà arriving at the scene found a woman with blood on her head and lip and swelling on her face.
Witnesses told gardaà that the attacker had punched and kicked the woman in rapid succession around the face and torso before kicking her in the face as she lay on the ground, reports Breaking News.
An off-duty garda passing in a taxi followed the attacker as he left the scene and identified him to gardaÃ. Strickland had blood on him and told gardaà he had assaulted his girlfriend, that he was glad he did it and that she deserved it.
Detective Garda O’Carroll agreed with defending counsel Keith Spencer BL that Strickland had been given “misinformation” that the woman might have been pregnant and had “lost it,” reports Breaking News.
The court heard the woman has since died from an unrelated illness.
Strickland has 99 previous convictions covering assault, theft and drug dealing, with Spencer saying his client had a long history of substance abuse but has been clean since going into custody, reports Breaking News.
The garda witness agreed with Spencer that his client and the woman had been in a relationship built around substance abuse, in her case alcohol.
He also accepted that Strickland later told gardaà he could not remember anything about the night or the attack and could not explain the cuts on his hands, reports Breaking News.
In a statement, the woman’s mother said that after the attack her daughter’s eyes and face “were in bits” and her blonde hair was “red with blood.”
Judge Fiona O’Sullivan said this was a violent and sustained attack on a “very vulnerable” woman, reports Breaking News.
She said that Strickland’s life had been blighted by heroin addiction and that he had taken steps towards rehabilitation.
She said the mitigatory factors were his guilty plea and his expressions of remorse, which she accepted as genuine, and taking these into consideration she imposed a sentence of two and a half years, reports Breaking News.
She suspended the final ten months to support Strickland’s efforts at drug rehabilitation, with the suspension on condition that he keep the peace and engage with the Probation Service for 12 months after his release, reports Breaking News.
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