A 15-month jail sentence was imposed on a man who could not come to terms with the break up of a relationship, assaulting his ex in her place of work and continuously breaching a protection and barring order, putting her in fear.
At Galway District Court on Monday Adam Kaminski (33 ) with an address at 74 Fionnuise, Doughiska, pleaded guilty to assaulting his ex-girlfriend causing her harm on August 29, 2011, two counts of contravening a protection order on September 9, 2011, at a house in Sraith Fhada, Doughiska, and one count of contravening a barring order at the same property on October 2, 2011.
Inspector Sean Glynn told the court that on August 29, 2011, the defendant called to his ex-girlfriend’s place of work in the city centre in an attempt to reconcile. However, as the woman was dealing with a customer Kaminski pulled a chair up beside her and then suddenly struck her in the face with his fist, resulting in her sustaining a laceration above the left eyebrow requiring three stitches. The inspector further explained that a protection order had been applied for and put in place by the Galway District Court on September 5 as a result of this attack, and there had been a number of breaches to this protection order and a further barring order imposed by the court on September 13.
The court heard that on September 11 last the defendant arrived at the injured party’s place of residence and began ringing the doorbell a number of times. He then picked up a large stone and used this to smash the front door window and then broke through an internal door gaining entry to the property. However a friend who had been at the house at the time managed to get Kaminski out. Three hours later, at 6am, the defendant returned to the woman’s address and gained entry to the property again. Kaminski then made his way up to the bedroom where the terrified woman woke to find him standing beside her. Again, the friend had to chase Kaminski from the property. There was a further incident on October 2 in which Kaminski had to be forcibly removed from the scene.
Inspector Glynn then informed Judge Mary Fahy that there is a further allegation, which is the subject of a file going to the DPP, involving a Facebook message allegedly containing a certain “tone” and threats.
“This is one of the most serious cases I have heard - the continuous and flagrant breach of conditions,” said Judge Fahy.
Defence solicitor Sarah O’Dowd explained that her client and the injured party had been in a relationship for 15 years but that the couple had broken up. Ms O’Dowd added that the injured party was not returning Kaminski’s calls and that he had been suspicious of her being in another relationship. “He was finding it difficult to come to terms with it,” said Ms O’Dowd.
“He is saying to the court that he does not understand or accept a court order to stay away and have no contact,” replied Judge Fahy. Ms O’Dowd said that her client has been struggling with many difficulties in his life including the fact that his mother is terminally ill with cancer.
Visibly upset the injured party told the court that she remains afraid of the defendant and that all she wants is “peace and quiet”. “I can’t understand why he won’t leave me alone. I didn’t want to bring him to court but I had no choice,” she said before breaking down in tears.
Describing the defendant’s actions as “appalling” Judge Fahy added that this “blatant breach of court orders must be treated seriously” by the court. Kaminski was then convicted and sentenced to a total of 15 months in jail. Leave to appeal was granted if granted bail, pending an appeal, Kaminski was ordered to adhere to conditions that he is to stay away from the injured party and her place of work, to have no contact whatsoever in person, by phone, text, Facebook, or in any manner either by himself or a third party.
