A Co Monaghan man who subjected his ex partner to a brutal attack in which he punched her several times in the head in front of their crying child has been jailed for two years.
Patrick Sherry (34), with an address at Castle Hill Park, Ballygawley, Co Tyrone, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault causing harm to Maryann McQuillan at her home in Monaghan over a period of days at Christmas in 2020.
Monaghan Circuit Court heard how Mr Sherry carried out significant violent assaults on his ex partner after she had invited him to stay over for Christmas that year with their one-and-a-half year old daughter. Garda John Doherty revealed to the court how on Christmas Eve, 2020, the couple, who had gone through periods of estrangements, were enjoying some bottles of Budweiser.
However the court heard that after their daughter had gone to bed, things took a turn for the worse when Sherry began punching Ms McQuillan in the head and accusing her of cheating on him. On Christmas Day, Garda Doherty outlined how Sherry began drinking Buckfast and the same issues were brought up again, with him this time pushing Ms McQuillan in a violent manner and she banged her head off a windowsill.
The court heard that things flared up again on December 27, when Mr Sherry consumed more alcohol on that day. He lifted a knife from a draining board and held it to Ms McQuillan’s throat.
When she tried to grab the knife from him, he kneed her several times and pulled clumps of hair from her head. The court heard how the couple’s one-and-a-half year old daughter then witnessed Mr Sherry grab her mother by the hair and punch her several times in the head as the child was crying.
He then kicked Ms McQuillan while she lay on the ground and struck her with the handle of the knife, before punching her more times to the front and side of the head. Ms McQuillan pretended to be knocked unconscious at that stage so that the attack would end.
The court heard how Mr Sherry had 56 previous convictions, including one for non fatal strangulation of another woman for which he received a prison sentence in the North. In a victim impact statement which she read out to court, Maryann McQuillan said that she doesn’t think she will ever forget or fully heal from the mental torture or physical pain that Sherry put her through.
She said no mother should ever have to answer her children’s questions about why daddy hurt mammy or hear them say that daddy’s face was terrifying. “For a long time I blamed myself for your actions of physical, emotional and mental torture,” Ms McQuillan added. She said Sherry had shown no remorse for what he had done and just kept running from the truth.
“It has been 5 years since the initial assaults, mental torture and physical pain that I endured which lasted over a period of days during Christmas 2020. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever forget or fully heal from it but someday I hope I do. That Christmas I really believed you Paddy, when you said you had changed your ways especially for our daughter. I should have known better but sometimes deep down all I ever wanted was for her to have a safe home with her daddy and mammy.
“No mother should ever have to answer her children’s questions about why daddy hurt mammy or hear them say that daddy’s face was terrifying. Why did daddy not want them, all because I did the right thing by leaving and not to go back so I could protect her and so I could raise them in a safe environment? For a long time I blamed myself for your actions of physical emotional and mental torture.
“You showed no remorse, no fault you just kept running to avoid the truth and standing up to what you had done for 5 years and now we are here after of years of fear living with your two young children, a fear that you would turn up and hurt us. I now have to relive it all over again. For a while, I thought I forgot what you did to me but it was a trauma response, fear, complete fear. Then I realised you were never going to change because when I look at the kids that was enough for me to heal for them.
“I walked away that time and I made the right decision for me and our daughter, I fell pregnant that same Christmas with your son and I promised I would never allow this to happen again. I ask why you should not have to stand here and say why you done what you done. This is a question that will go unanswered by you, I am thankful you stood up and pleaded guilty and admitted what you had done and al, the pain you caused.”
In a letter from Patrick Sherry that was read out to court by defence barrister, James McGowan, BL, he said he was now remorseful for what he had done in the past. He said he has been using his time in prison wisely and he is trying to become a better man. “I needed to go to prison to sort my life out,” Sherry’s letter said.
“I want to say sorry for all the hurt I have caused.” Judge John Aylmer told Sherry that he was before the court for significant assaults on a woman who had been his intimate partner.
He said one very serious aggravating factor was that some of these assaults had been carried out in front of their one-and-a-half year old child. The judge said that while the injuries suffered by Ms McQuillan were not the most serious in this case, the emotional impact it all had on her was very significant. Judge Aylmer said in mitigation, Mr Sherry appeared from his letter to be genuinely remorseful and had some insight into the impact of his offending. He imposed a sentence of three years imprisonment on both counts, with the final 12 months suspended, to run concurrent and with the sentence backdated to when Mr Sherry entered prison for the offences in June 2024.