A man has been jailed for 20 months for attacking and threatening to kill his then partner in their Dublin home while he was a serving member of An Garda Síochána.
Ian Gillen, of Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Jennifer Clinton on December 23rd, 2021, at Trafalgar Lane, Monkstown, and to assaulting Ms Clinton on the same occasion.
After hearing facts in the case on Thursday, Judge Martin Nolan adjourned overnight. He on Friday said the custody threshold had been crossed, noting that he had considered the facts of the case, Gillen’s circumstances and mitigation.
Judge Nolan said Gillen was a front-line garda who had to “make difficult decisions, and this can have an effect on a person”. He also noted that Gillen was “visited with a tragic event with the death of his son”.
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He imposed a prison sentence of four years, with the final 28 months suspended on strict conditions, which he said was due to the substantial mitigation and the tragedy in Gillen’s life.
Insp Rachael Kilpatrick testified that the couple had socialised together in Blackrock Tennis and Bowling Club, where they were members, before the attack. They had gone home separately, with Ms Clinton arriving first.
Ms Clinton told gardaí that when Gillen arrived home, he called her downstairs to sit by the fireside, where he stood over her in an intimidating manner, rebuking her and calling her names.
She said he told her ‘Jen, I’m going to rip your head off’, putting her in fear, and prompting her to make an audio recording of the rest of the incident on her mobile phone.
She said he punched her with a closed fist three times on top of her head. In an effort to get away, she said she needed to go to the toilet, but he refused to let her go.
She eventually managed get away and locked the bathroom door behind her. She cleared the windowsill and eventually made it out of the house.
She had managed to record 40 minutes of the threats. An attempt was made to play this in court, but it was not possible due to technical difficulties. A transcript of the recording was handed to the judge instead.
Ms Clinton described Gillen’s conduct as pure anger. She said that any time she tried to get up, he kept telling her to sit back down.
“You’re going to die tonight,” he told her three times.
After Ms Clinton escaped, Gillen was arrested for coercive control. He was interviewed and the recording was played to him. He said he was embarrassed and it was not in him to hit her, but indicated it was another person in his body.
“He was shocked by his own behaviour,” said Insp Kilpatrick.
Gillen accepted he could snap and be angry when drinking. He said he had issues in his background, including the death of his son, which caused him to drink.
He has since retired from the Garda on medical grounds and has no previous convictions.
Under cross-examination by the defence, Insp Kilpatrick agreed that Gillen was a front-line garda for 40 years and had dealt with many stressful situations.
She accepted that it was in the line of duty that he had to deal with his son taking his own life in his early 20s. Gillen was the first responder on the scene. His mental health deteriorated afterwards and he relied on alcohol, the court heard.
Ms Clinton entered the witness box to deliver her victim impact statement. She said her life had been marked by fear and deep trauma since the prolonged assault, during which she felt overpowered and trapped.
She said she still lived with the consequences every day, having been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression.
“I live in a state of hypervigilance,” she said. “I lost my confidence. The memory of that night is etched into my mind and body like the cross he etched into the front door of our shared home one night in a rage.”
She said that Gillen’s rising aggression while they socialised earlier that evening had prompted her to leave, but he had arrived home full of fury.
“I wanted my family to know the truth if I did not survive,” she said, referring to the 40 minutes of the assault that she captured on her phone.
At one point, she said, Gillen mockingly suggested that she ring Blackrock Garda station, insinuating that nobody would help her if she did because he was a serving garda.
“Living with him took a deep emotional toll. I felt smaller and smaller all the time,” she said. “The man I once loved became someone I feared.”
She added: “As a long-standing member of An Garda Síochána, he would present himself as a figure, someone to be believed and relied upon to uphold common decency and morality.”
However, she said that he did not tarnish the reputation of An Garda Síochána, but just his own.
“I’m here for justice,” she said, asking the court to take into account the enduring horror Gillen had caused.
Kathleen Leader SC, defending, handed the court two testimonials and a psychologist’s report on behalf of her client, who she said was deeply ashamed and apologised for what he put Ms Clinton through.
She said he had faced a number of traumatic incidents in his 40 years in the force, which had taken a toll on him and probably had not been dealt with as they should have been.
She described the death of his son, while Gillen was on duty, as the worst nightmare of every guard and parent, and asked the court to take it into account.
His two referees were in court to support him, she said, with one crediting her client with saving his life and the other saying that he had helped him in the prevention of suicide.
