A Cavan resident has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the assault, sexual assault and coercive control of his wife.
The 46-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his wife, did not accept the verdict of the jury and showed no remorse when he was found guilty by a jury of one count of rape, three counts of aggravated sexual assault, three counts of assault causing harm and one count of coercive control following a two week Central Criminal Court trial last November.
The abuse took place in locations in Cavan on dates between July 2020 and May 2022. The defendant moved to Ireland from Brazil 23 years ago and worked in various jobs during that time.
He met his wife, also a Brazilian, online. he proposed and they met for the first time just one week before getting married. The court heard the marriage was largely happy at first, although the woman had no friends due to her lack of English and opportunities to socialise. However, the court heard the marriage became increasingly violent, with the man slapping, pushing, shoving her and hitting her while he was drinking to excess.
In the first aggravated sexual assault, the man tied the woman up and cut her clitoris with a knife. He put a piercing into the hole the next day but it fell out, the court heard.
During the Covid lockdowns of 2020, the man was out of work and the violence increased along with his drinking. On another occasion, he struck her repeatedly with a phone charger as a "punishment" and raped her afterwards. She had only recently given birth.
In the final incident of abuse, in May 2022, the man had been drinking since the morning when he took the woman upstairs to their bedroom. All four children were home at the time. He tied her up, produced a bar and said he was going to "destroy" her vagina. He then hit her over the head with the bar and started sexually assaulting her and grabbing her around the neck. She was screaming and begging him to let her go and she eventually escaped to a neighbour's house where gardaí were called.
The woman was taken to hospital where evidence of the assault and previous aggravated sexual assaults were documented. Sentencing the man today, Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo said the man had used "sadistic and humiliating violence" against his wife and that the offences represented a "significant breach of trust" given that they were carried out by her husband in their family home.
He set a global headline sentence of 14 years. Mr Justice Naidoo noted that the man had not pleaded guilty and has not shown remorse or victim empathy. The court heard that the man does not accept the verdict of the jury.
