A woman whose former husband received a suspended sentence after he installed cameras and restricted her food has said he “destroyed” her life yet “now he’s free”.
The Circuit Criminal Court heard how she was left isolated in their house and was told to remain inside.
Speaking to The Irish Times, the woman recalled she was “always watched” through cameras installed at their Dublin home. The court heard these cameras fed back to her ex-husband’s phone.
“I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone,” she said.
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He also grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back at their Dublin home.
At court her ex-husband admitted coercive control and assault causing harm.
He received a 12-month sentence for coercive control and six months for assault to run concurrently. The sentences were suspended in full on strict conditions for two years.
While respecting the court’s decision and expressing satisfaction that her ex-husband now has a criminal conviction, she said: “He deserved more ... so he would know how he ruined my life.
“It destroyed my life, it destroyed my character, and now he’s free.”
Now aged in her 30s, she said she had a “well-paying” job in her home country before moving to Dublin in her late 20s be with her new husband. She was arranged to marry him in 2019.
She recalled being confused as he became a “totally changed person”.
The man never called her by her name, she said, but instead used “abusive” words.
She said she became a “servant” for him and some of his family members at times, cooking and cleaning, saying: “He always said he is my boss.
“He always used his power of money.
“I remember, lots of the time, I was hungry and I wasn’t allowed to eat food.”
She was not allowed to leave the house “without permission”.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, recalled being cold in the winter months, but was not allowed to use the heating.
The effect of the “cruelty” was still felt in her daily life, she said, detailing how she “can’t concentrate” and was “afraid” to leave her home.
“I was a very successful person before marriage, and now I don’t have any aim for achievement,” she said.
“I’m totally a broken person. I’m alive, but inside I’m like a dead person. I don’t have any rage or any happiness. I don’t have anything.”
She has been receiving support through counselling and from family members who now live in Ireland, she said.
Coercive control, which became a criminal offence in 2019, is often referred to colloquially as “intimate terrorism”.
Described as a persistent pattern of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, it can often manifest itself through economic control, physical violence or emotional and sexual abuse.
More than 41,000 women reported such abuse to Women’s Aid last year, the highest number of disclosures in its 50-year history.
Chief executive Sarah Benson said there was a need for a detailed analysis of how coercive control was progressing through the courts, as judges could often be “very constrained” in sentencing due to mitigating factors such as guilty pleas.
Such an assessment could consider whether sentencing parameters should be increased beyond the maximum five years, she said.
“Judges are often left with very little to play with in terms of a sentence that might express through the courts just how severe and consequential the crime has been,” she said. “It can feel, in some of these cases, to be quite a low sentence.”
