A Limerick man has been sentenced to four years in prison with the final year suspended for falsely imprisoning his then girlfriend and subjecting her to a vicious assault.
David Keane (32), of Island Road, Assumpta Park, a nephew of murdered Limerick crime boss Kieran Keane, swung an axe at the woman, stood on her head and beat her during the two-hour episode at Cherrydale Court, Dublin Road, Limerick in April 2021.
Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard that Keane attacked the woman after he started arguing with her about how much money she had received in her pay packet. When the woman said her wages were her business, the court heard, Keane replied: “It is my business, I’m your boyfriend, I own you.”
Judge Colin Daly said Keane locked the woman into the apartment so she “could not escape the violence”.
“He (Keane) pulled her by the hair and threw her to the ground and attacked her with an axe,” the judge said.
Judge Daly said Keane stood on the woman’s head and banged her head on a bathroom floor.
After a sustained two-hour assault, the woman managed to flee and run out on to the street but Keane tried to drag her back into the flat by her hair. Judge Daly said a “caretaker” at the apartment complex intervened and the woman eventually managed to escape.
Keane returned to the flat, barricaded himself inside and was eventually arrested after gardaí broke in after the defendant failed to respond to their requests to come out.
Judge Daly said the woman sustained “bruising to her chest, head and arms, as well as abrasions, a head injury, and multiple soft tissue injuries”.
In a victim impact statement, read out in court on her behalf, the woman said it had been a “horrendous, violent and vicious attack”.
“I continue to suffer from extreme post-traumatic stress disorder, sometimes I spend weeks and months without any contact with the outside world and I am very often overwhelmed by feelings of shame attached to my attack – wondering if I could have prevented it,” she added.
“I am crippled emotionally and physically, and I constantly live in fear that I will become a prisoner again.”
Judge Daly said Keane, who pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and assault causing harm, has a “history of domestic violence”. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman causing her harm and threatening her with a pitch fork at Blackwater, Ardnacruhsa, Co Clare and assaulting the woman causing her harm at Island Road, Limerick City.
Judge Daly said he felt a five-year sentence was “appropriate” for the false imprisonment offence. He said he would reduce it to four years with the final year suspended after taking into account Keane’s guilty plea, personal circumstances and “question-marks over his intellectual functioning”.
Keane’s barrister, senior counsel Andrew Sexton, said Keane had “come from a family which led to him having challenges”.
“When he behaves himself and he doesn’t fly off the handle he appears to be a decent person, and he cares for his sister,” the barrister said.
Keane’s uncle, Kieran Keane, was tortured and shot dead in Drombana, Co Limerick in 2003 as part of a gangland feud. Five men are serving life sentences for the killing.
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