Judge Jails Father Who Dangled Infant Daughter Over River Fergus

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An Ennis father has been handed a combined five-and-a-half-year jail term for endangering his three and a half month old daughter’s life when he dangled her upside down by one leg over the River Fergus.

The incident occurred during a Garda stand-off last April.

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The man in question, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, was handed a four year jail term by Judge Brian O’Callaghan for the endangerment of and threatening to kill his baby, as well as a three year jail term for the assaults on the child’s mother.

The sentences will run consecutively, and Judge O’Callaghan suspended the final 18 months “to incentivise rehabilitation.”

He described one of the two assaults by the man on the mother as a “ vicious and barbaric punishment beating” in which he used a stick, while the following day he was involved in a stand-off with Gardai concerning the couple’s infant child.

At 2am on April 11th last, a member of the Garda Armed Response Unit (ARU) brought the tense three-and-a-half hour stand off to an and when they tasered the man in the back of an ambulance at Friar’s Walk, as other ARU members rescued the infant baby.

A host of other emergency services had been involved in the incident, which included several flash-points including one where the man ran away from Gardai to the River Fergus, mounted a wall overlooking the river at Wood Quay and dangled the baby out upside down by one leg over the water.

In her victim impact statement, the infant’s mother said: “I thought he was going to kill her and that I would never see her again.”

The baby was uninjured and the court heard she is thriving today.

The man’s sentence back-dated to April 11th last to when he was brought into custody.