'A monster in our home': Former garda subjected wife and stepsons to years of abuse
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A former garda and soldier has been remanded in custody overnight pending sentence on Friday for assaulting his ex-wife and stepsons over a 12-year period.
Mark Doyle, 38, with a previous address at Corbally Paddocks, Newbridge, Co Kildare, admitted five counts of assault causing harm to Meav Doyle and two counts of assaulting two of her sons causing them harm, on dates between September 2007 and August 2019.
Mark Doyle, who had been stationed at Ronanstown, Blanchardstown and Cabra, was suspended by An Garda Síochána and later resigned from the force before pleading guilty on the day of his scheduled trial last October.
He was a member of the Irish Defence Forces between 2002 and 2009 and a garda between 2009 and 2023.
Reading her victim impact statement in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, Meav McLoughlin-Doyle said her ex-husband took herself and her children through “horror after horror” during the 12 years they were together.
She described a relationship marked by control, violence, coercion and abuse during which she and her children lived in “constant terror and fear”.
“He was a respected member of the community but a monster in our home. He used his position to shake off any suspicion,” she said.
The court heard Mark Doyle once showed up to a parent-teacher meeting in his Garda car and full uniform, after the school had expressed concerns over a disclosure by a child.
Ms McLoughlin-Doyle said she could never have imagined the “tsunami of issues” and constant fight to survive she and her children had endured as fallout of the abuse.
“The trauma will last a lifetime,” she said, adding the abuse had turned her from a confident, outgoing, ambitious woman into a shell of herself, suffering from anxiety, panic attacks and depression.
Her children suffer from numerous mental health difficulties, including anxiety, self-harm ideation, and anger issues, the court heard.
She concluded her victim impact statement with a powerful description of domestic violence as a “targeted reign of terror”.
“Domestic violence is constantly second-guessing yourself. Domestic violence is the fear of violence all the time and of violence against children. Domestic violence is not knowing what will set the offender off, and when you think you have worked it out, it changes on a whim.
“Domestic violence is fear of shame. Domestic violence is fear of having nowhere to go, while being judged for staying. Domestic violence is shame of letting it get that far.”
Detective Inspector Adrian Kinsella from the Garda National Protection Bureau gave evidence of the assaults to Dean Kelly SC, prosecuting. The court heard Mark Doyle met his ex-wife in 2007 and they married in 2012. She had two children from her previous relationship and went on to have two further children with Doyle.
Doyle would slag his wife and pick on her over issues like money, weight gain, or how things were done in the house and would react violently and hit her.
Mark Doyle twice perforated his wife’s eardrum by punching her to the head in front of her children, blaming her for the assault: “You see what you’ve made me do.”
On one occasion, he grabbed her throat with both hands and tried to choke her, knocking her to the floor while she screamed.
When the woman was five or six months pregnant with one of their children, Mark Doyle threw a chair at her, cutting her on the thigh and then saying it was “her fault” that she made him do it.
Another time he grabbed her by the hair “like a dog” and pulled her around while his children shouted at him to stop.
During other assaults, he kicked his wife repeatedly while wearing boots and whipped her in the head with his jacket, cutting her with the zip.
Ms McLoughlin Doyle required medical treatment on numerous occasions. On one occasion she lied to doctors and said her injuries were caused when she had “fallen over the dog”.
Mark Doyle assaulted one of his stepsons with an airsoft gun, shooting him in the backside and laughing before removing the pellet with a tweezers.
This son recalls staying in his room a lot over the years and “tuning out” when the atmosphere changed in the house. His stepfather would call him names like “stupid”, “fat c**t”, “retard” and “dope”, he told gardaí.
Mark Doyle also assaulted his other stepson on several occasions, punching him to the stomach, banging his head on the table, pulling him out of bed by the hair and stamping on him causing cuts to his face, the court heard.
Ms McLoughlin-Doyle obtained a barring order in 2019 and filed a complaint to gardaí in the spring of 2020.
Mark Doyle met gardaí by appointment in December 2020 and denied the allegations against him, saying “everything had been twisted”.
“I have been experiencing abuse for years and controlling behaviour,” he told gardaí, alleging one of his stepsons had drunkenly attacked him.
He has no previous convictions.
Inspector Kinsella agreed with Garnet Orange SC, defending, that Doyle indicated his intention to plead guilty about three months before his actual plea.
The inspector further agreed Doyle grew up in an environment of ongoing violence in the family and that his father had alcohol addiction.
Mr Orange said Doyle had offered to apologise to his ex-wife but this was rejected.
The court heard Doyle has not seen his children since 2021 and now accepts his guilt and the wrong that he did to his ex-wife and children.
A psychological report submitted to the court said Doyle has expressed notable remorse, shame, embarrassment and regret and he understands the traumatic effect of his behaviour.
Doyle is now in a relationship with another woman, who wrote a reference for him, the court heard.
He was assessed as being at low risk of reoffending and described as “psychologically resilient with satisfactory self-esteem".
Counsel said Doyle has taken responsibility for his offending behaviour and does not seek to minimise it, but rather wants to do “whatever it takes” to set matters right.
The court heard the loss of his job in the gardaí weighs heavily on Doyle, who is now reduced to doing some part-time building work. Doyle is effectively supported by his partner, counsel said.
Mr Orange said there had been “considerable publicity” about the case and prison can be “particularly difficult” for former members of An Garda Síochána.
Judge Martin Nolan remanded Doyle in custody overnight to consider his sentence.