THE HUSBAND of country singer Gloria Sherry – who had a No 1 hit with her version of One Day at a Time, which remained in the Irish charts for 90 weeks from 1977 to 1979 – was sentenced to six months in prison at Monaghan District Court, where he was convicted of breaching a safety order at their home in August of this year.
John Sherry, better known as Don, was told by Judge Sean MacBride that he was “an unmitigated drunken bully and control freak”.
He was already under suspended sentence for two previous breaches, the judge noted, recalling that he had warned Sherry at an earlier hearing that he was “treading on ice”.
Monday’s court hearing was told that Sherry (63) of Tirnaskea North, Tydavnet, Co Monaghan, and his wife, who is 60 and living at the same address, had been married since 1973, but that their relationship had broken down in May of last year, resulting in family law proceedings that are still ongoing.
Sherry had denied claims by Gloria that he had entered her bedroom in the home they still shared, and had threatened her while he was drunk, on the morning of August 6th, 2011.
He claimed they had in fact met while going to the bathroom, and that he had challenged her about rumours he believed her boyfriend was spreading.
Ms Sherry rejected a suggestion by Máire Mullarkey, instructed by Patrick Tallan Company, for Sherry, that she had only started making complaints to the Garda after family law proceedings dealing with their break-up and possession of their home had been initiated.
She told the court that she had attended AA meetings and had not taken a drink in 12 years. It was true that there had been arguments in the past, but she had tried to save the marriage, she said.
Ms Mullarkey had argued that a jail sentence would prevent Sherry, who works in the music business, from earning money out of which he was paying maintenance to Ms Sherry.
But Judge MacBride said the defendant was in blatant breach of suspended sentences arising from two previous safety order breaches and had already been warned he was treading on ice.