Assaulted girlfriend with a child's '˜Batcave' toy

Brendan McIvor, of Templeard, pleaded guilty to common assault on July 6, 2015.

Derry Magistrate’s Court heard the complainant went to sleep in her son’s room.

Her friend called a short time later and they were in the bedroom chatting when McIvor came in.

The couple had a brief argument and the 29-year-old assaulted the woman by throwing a child’s toy at her.

McIvor then kicked and punched the woman about the head.

The court heard the defendant pulled the woman out of bed by the hair, pulling a clump of hair out in the process.

The woman sustained bruising to her right eye and cheek, had hair pulled out and had friction burns to her right arm.

Her friend witnessed the incident.

McIvor was arrested and during police interview denied the assault.

He claimed his girlfriend’s friend must have caused the injuries so that she could blame him.

It was revealed the student has a previous conviction for assault, which also took place in a domestic setting.

Defence counsel, Stephen Chapman, said his client ‘recognises that his behaviour had been outrageous’.

He said the defendant, who hopes to study for a Masters Degree in Nursing after his graduation, has ‘anger management issues’ in certain circumstances.

The barrister added that an immediate custodial sentence ‘will have a devastating effect’ on McIvor’s studies.

He said the potential effect of the conviction for McIvor’s future studies and career is an ‘additional punishment he is going to have to bare’.

Passing sentence, Deputy District Judge, Terence Dunlop, said the court would ‘be quite within its rights to send you down for a period of immediate custody for this ferocious assault.’

However, he said he thought it was ‘appropriate to impose a period of probation and community service to ‘reflect the gravity of your offending and to give you an opportunity to reflect on the consequences.’

Judge Dunlop added that this would allow McIvor to ‘turn things around and ensure this doesn’t happen again.’

The judge also ordered the 29-year-old to complete 18 months Probation and 70 hours Community Service.