Newcastle Man Jailed For False Imprisonment Of Partner

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Newcastle man has been jailed for three years at the Central Criminal Court for falsely imprisoning and coercively controlling his former partner.

Having pleaded guilty last November, the actions of Timore’s Cian Smullen were described by Mr Justice Paul Burns as “cruel”.

He also noted that the accused had 24 previous convictions, whilst a probation report stated that Smullen had limited remorse, engaging in victim blaming and was at high risk of reoffending.

It was in 2019 that the victim began a romantic relationship with Cian Smullen, the two moving in together two months later. It wasn’t long, Detective Garda Liz Collins stated at a sentence hearing last December, before he became threatening, abusive and began ordering the woman to stay at home. Smullen was soon resorting to violence, and threats of planting drugs in the house so Tusla would take her child away.

In her victim statement, the woman branded him a “cruel, inhumane person” who had ruined both her and her child’s life, and she was now full of anxiety and shame from “a time I was completely broken”. Bruises on her face from being pinned down, beaten and choked meant the woman couldn’t leave the house, and she was also “too scared to tell anyone what was going on in case I’d lose my daughter”.

A psychology report stated that Smullen had ADHD and difficulty controlling his anger, whilst Garda Collins also stated that the accused had a very long history of cocaine abuse and has a damage septum “which would be evident when you hear him talking”.

Defending, Eoghan Cole SC said that Smullen was now free of drugs and was working with his father in the family business.

The judge sentenced Smullen to four years in prison, but suspended the final year, backdating it to November last year for time spent in custody.