Victim of assault left home over fear former partner would attack again

A victim of domestic violence was forced to leave her home and friends behind out of fear her former partner would attack her again, a court has heard.

Stefan Sorici held the woman captive in her home, kicked her, choked her and told her he “would do time” for her life.

The 10-hour ordeal only ended when the woman jumped from the first floor window of her flat and ran barefoot to a nearby pub where a customer rang gardaí­.

Sorici (40) of Dorset Street, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to the woman in her home in the city centre on July 14th, 2016.

Garda Damien Noonan told the court that the woman was walking her young son to school when she saw Sorici hiding behind a wall. She thought he was in prison but learned later he had been released that morning, the court heard.

Sorici told her to go back inside and he took her phone and found text messages from the woman’s new partner. He began choking her neck and kicking her and said he was prepared to “do extra time for my life”, the court heard.

He told her “he was giving her 24 hours to leave the country” and accused her of destroying his life by securing barring orders against him. The court heard he has multiple convictions for breaching domestic violence barring orders.

Judge Pauline Codd noted Sorici also humiliated the woman when he used her phone to call her parents in Moldova and telling them she deserved to be punished for seeing another man.

The woman told the court she was placed into a refuge by Women’s Aid and was later relocated out of the capital because of the “extreme danger” to her. Sorici went into hiding but gardaí­ arrested him in November 2019 and he has been in custody since.

The victim said she was worried about what would happen when Sorici gets out of prison again. The court heard the attack left her with bruising to her face, neck and wrists.

Judge Codd said that the attack took away the woman’s remaining sense of security and left her living in constant fear.

She suspended the final year of a three-and-a-half year prison sentence on condition that Sorici keep the peace and put himself forward for assessment for a domestic violence programme.

She ordered that he have no contact with the victim.