Man jailed for coercive control and threatening to kill his ex-partner

A FORMER soldier has been imprisoned for six years after he was sentenced in Carlow Circuit Court on Friday for the coercive control of his former partner and of threatening to kill her and falsely imprisoning her.

Gavin Doran (39) had already pleaded guilty to assaulting his then-partner Nicole Nolan at her home in Olive Crescent, Fruithill, Carlow on 31 October 2021.

At the sentence hearing on Friday, prosecutor Niall Storan and Detective Garda Eoin McGrath gave details about the horrific assault on Ms Nolan that night, in which he kept her imprisoned for six hours and beat her in front of their young son.

The court heard that Mr Doran, originally from The Curragh, Co Kildare, had previously been imprisoned for the same crimes against another woman in 2014, after which he was expelled from the defence forces.

Ms Nolan, who was in a relationship with Mr Doran for over five years, did not know about the serious assault on his previous partner and feared for her life on the night she was attacked.

“I thought he was going to murder me that night. It was horrific – he should never have been let out of prison. I want to warn other women about him. He’s a repeat abuser of women,” Ms Nolan (34) told The Nationalist.

“For years, it was constant abuse and control. He cut me off from my friends and I never went outside the door … I don’t know where I got the courage from, I’m a shell of a person. He didn’t apologise; he’s not sorry. I don’t want anything from him. The more people who know about him, the better. When you’re in that situation, no-one understands. It’s horrific. It’ll never leave me.” Mr Doran had denied all the charges except the assault charge and was found guilty by a unanimous jury in July.

On sentencing Mr Doran to six years’ imprisonment, Judge Eugene O’Kelly said that he was “an obscenely jealous man” and that Ms Nolan had “suffered greatly as a result”.

Judge O’Kelly heard details about the assault in which Mr Doran hit, kicked, headbutted and bit Ms Nolan in a six-hour assault that began in their three-year-old son’s room. At one stage, when Ms Nolan tried to protect herself by raising her leg to keep him away, he bit her foot. He also choked her and put his fist down her throat. At another point she tried to escape, but he dragged her back up the stairs by her hair.

Detective McGrath told the court that Mr Doran told the victim he would kill her and that he would chop her up and put her in a black plastic bag. On seeing the damage that he’d done to her face the following day, Mr Doran asked her if make-up would cover up the bruises, the court heard, and that when he eventually left the house, she locked the door and called the gardaí. When she was brought to hospital, she had black eyes, bite marks and bruises on her body, photographs of which were taken as evidence again him.

Judge O’Kelly also heard details of how the defendant had controlled Ms Nolan from 1 January 2019 to 31 October 2021. He would take her phone and cut her off from her social media accounts, while he would also go through her phone calls. He accused her of sleeping with other men and beat her, while also cutting her off from her family and friends.

In her victim impact statement that was read out in court, Ms Doran said: ‘I honestly believed that I was going to die. The terror still runs through me. I have to live with the mental torture. I never felt like I was good enough. I have nightmares and anxiety now. I will live with the fear forever more.’ Mr Doran took the stand on Friday, telling the judge that he was not happy with his legal counsel of David Bulbulia SC and Tara Geoghegan BL, accusing them and prosecutor Mr Storan of being unfair.

Judge O’Kelly interrupted him, telling him that “his comments were for the court of appeal”.

Judge O’Kelly, when sentencing Mr Doran to six years, noted that he had shown no remorse, nor had he apologised to the victim and that there was no reason to suspend any of the sentence.