A man has been jailed for five years for threatening to kill his partner, their six month old baby and himself if the woman left him.
Patrick Stokes told Louise Kavanagh he was going to slit her and the baby’s throat after threatening to rape her.
“You are going to die tonight,” he told her .
Stokes (26), previously of Booterstown Halting Site, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to arson of their home at the site on February 2nd, 2017. The fire caused €21,000 worth of damage.
He further pleaded guilty to assaulting Ms Kavanagh causing her harm, threatening to kill or cause her serious harm and falsely imprisoning her at the Clayton Hotel, Sandyford on March 11th, 2017.
Stokes has previous convictions for assault, hi-jacking, violent behaviour in a garda station, possession of knives and robbery.
Det Garda Colm Gregan told Pieter Le Vert BL, prosecuting, that Stokes and Ms Kavanagh were staying in the Clayton Hotel after he had set fire to their house the previous month. She had just told him she had left him.
The couple re-united some weeks after the fire and had been getting on well when Stokes became aggressive again and attacked and threatened Ms Kavanagh in their hotel room. He got on top of her and held her throat with both his hands until she struggled to breathe.
The detective said Ms Kavanagh managed to get away and made her way to the door but saw Stokes had grabbed their baby by the chest of his baby-grow while holding a knife in his other hand.
Dropped baby
She feared that he would hurt the child so she returned to calm him down before he dropped the baby from a height on to the bed.
He then continued his attack on Ms Kavanagh punching her in the ribs and knocking her back on the bed before he again threatened to slit her and the baby’s throats. Stokes threatened the woman with a broken wine bottle telling her he would kill her before she left him.
Det Garda Gregan said he then threatened to rape his partner and told her “you are going to die tonight”.
He agreed with Mr LeVert that at this stage Ms Kavanagh stopped struggling and Stokes got up off her. She jumped up and grabbed their baby before Stokes broke down in tears.
“She promised not to leave him. She was saying it to survive,” Mr Le Vert told the court.
Ms Kavanagh was left with a black eye and pain in her throat and ribs. The couple later attended a meeting together with their social worker, where it was discovered that the woman had overheard some of the attack through her voicemail after Stokes rang her during the course of the incident .
She was very concerned for Ms Kavanagh’s safety and ultimately assisted her in leaving him. Stokes was questioned three months later after Ms Kavanagh made a complaint to garda.
Horrendous
In a victim impact report, Ms Kavanagh described the attack as terrifying and horrendous.
Ms Kavanagh said she was so afraid of Stokes tracking her down that she got a special phone which has a safety feature on it. She said she still suffers with anxiety due to the assault. She said that without Stokes around, she and her son’s lives are good.
Judge Martin Nolan said the Stokes has a “difficult violent background” and accepted that he became addicted to alcohol and drugs “to deal with matters”.
He said Stokes lost control on the night and said the assault was very serious. “The way he treated his baby was extremely serious,” Judge Nolan said before he added that the threats issued were believable.
“I’ve no doubt that he regrets what he did but the harm was done. I believe he wants to reform but nobody knows if he can,” Judge Nolan continued.
Lisa Daly BL, defending, said Stokes was sincerely apologetic for what he put his partner and their child through.
“He says he has ruined his life and lost his family,” she continued.