Athlone man jailed for 'savage beating' of former partner with golf club

A man who subjected his former partner to a “savage beating” with a golf club and a wooden plank, causing her to flee the country in fear, has been jailed for five years and three months.

Mark Conway (39), with an address at Marine View, Athlone, appeared before Mullingar Circuit Court where he faced sentence for what Judge Keenan Johnson previously said was “an absolutely horrific and terrifying” attack on his former partner.

Conway appeared in court charged with assault causing harm to his former partner, and production of an article during the course of the assault, namely a golf club and a piece of timber.

The court previously heard how the victim was beaten with both a golf club and a wooden floorboard at Mr Conway’s home on February 16, 2024. Many of the blows landed while Mr Conway had the woman’s hair wrapped around his fist so she couldn’t escape.

Mr Conway’s own father tried to intervene in the assault and it was he who called the Gardaí after seeing his son beating the woman with the wooden board.

The woman told Gardaí she thought Mr Conway was going to kill her. She tried to calm him down at one stage by saying she loved him, but he just said "haha" and picked up a metal bar from the landing.

She barricaded herself in the bedroom and pulled the bed in front of the door. He was banging on the other side of the door before driving the iron bar through it, the court heard in July. Things went quiet after that and the woman heard doors banging downstairs before there was a knocking at the bedroom door which signalled the arrival of Gardaí.

Mr Conway had locked himself in a room, shouting abuse at Gardaí and, when they got the door open, he "hurled himself at Gardaí" who deployed pepper spray before arresting him and conveying him to Athlone Garda Station.

When he was interviewed the following day, he told Gardaí he had been drinking heavily and had no recollection of the night before, but suggested the injured party was a liar.

The emotional victim appeared via video link, because she was too terrified to attend court in person. In a victim impact statement, read out on her behalf in court, she said the “severe beating” with a golf club “nearly cost me my life”.

"I should've been dead. I have no doubt his intention was to kill me that day because he had threatened to,” she said.

“I'm not in court today as I fled the country in fear. He said if I changed my name or the colour of my hair, he’d still find me. He said if I ever stepped foot in Athlone again, he’d tear me apart and that I’d always be looking over my shoulder.”

Michael Cooney BL, for the defence, said his client wanted to apologise for his behaviour and hoped the injured party would accept it. On video link, however, the woman said, “I will never, ever, ever accept it.”

Mr Cooney outlined that his client has a history of alcohol abuse and was in “a state of alcoholic blackout” when the incident took place and that he is “deeply ashamed”.

Judge Johnson noted that the woman was “battered all over her body” and that this was a case of “a savage attack perpetrated on an intimate partner”, which he said was “extremely, extremely serious” and “pure thuggery”.

“This type of domestic violence needs to be called out. The physical injuries were significant, but the psychological injuries are worse," he said, noting the woman had fled the country out of fear and as a result of harassment from her former partner following the incident.

Mr Conway has 21 previous convictions, including 15 for public order offences, two for criminal damage, one for burglary, two for theft, and one for possession of knives.

Judge Johnson noted that all previous convictions had stemmed from “quite a serious drinking problem”, referring to Mr Conway as a “Jekyll and Hyde character - he’s passive when he’s sober, but when he’s drunk, he’s a menace and a thug”.

He accepted that Mr Conway had pleaded guilty to the offence, though he had initially opted for a jury trial. He noted the apology proffered in court, but said it was “too little, too late, and rings rather hollow”.

In July, he set a headline sentence of seven years and six months imprisonment, which he mitigated down to six years. Judge Johnson adjourned the finalisation of the sentence for a probation report to be the deciding factor in whether or not any portion of that sentence should be suspended.

Ultimately, he suspended the final nine months of the sentence for a period of five years, with the sentence backdated to March of last year, when the accused first went into custody.