A man who twice slapped his eight-year-old daughter on the face in a city centre supermarket was jailed for eight months today.
After viewing CCTV footage of the assault, District Judge Barney McElholm described the incident as “quite frankly horrifying. This demands an immediate custodial sentence and it will be increased due to the domestic violence aggravator”.
The defendant, 52-year-old Seamus Mullan, from Foyle Park in Derry, had initially denied assaulting his daughter in the Tesco Strand Road supermarket last August 31 during a chance meeting with her and her mother, Mullan’s ex-partner. Even after viewing CCTV footage of the incident, Mullan continued to deny the offence before he eventually pleaded guilty.
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A prosecution solicitor told Derry Magistrates Court that a member of staff reported to the police that she had seen Mullan twice slapping his daughter with an open hand. The child squealed and ran towards her mother. The staff member, who was concerned for her own safety, told a colleague who had also witnessed the incident. The work colleague told the police that after being struck by her father, the girl fell to the floor before getting up and running towards her mother as her father roared at his daughter.
The solicitor said Mullan was arrested two days later. He told the police he was with his elderly mother, the girl’s grandmother. He said his daughter ran towards her grandmother, who had only just been diagnosed with cancer, and pulled her hair. He said he was afraid that his daughter could knock his mother to the ground and he roared at her to stop.
“He said he would never harm his child and said he was only trying to protect his mother”, the prosecutor said.
Asking for a suspended sentence, a defence barrister said “the CCTV footage speaks for itself”.
He said the defendant, who accepted his guilt, had not acted out of malice but had over-reacted in a disproportionate chastisement of his daughter in order to protect the girl’s grandmother.
Jailing Mullan for eight months, Mr McElholm said the CCTV footage showed a young girl being lively, maybe even naughty, when meeting her grandmother in the supermarket.
“There is no evidence on the CCTV that she was pulling her granny’s hair. She is doing with eight year olds do. Speaking as a grandfather that at times can be slightly annoying and very lively. She was not doing anything wrong. This little girl did absolutely nothing wrong and this man viciously assaults her and then lies his way through his police interview even through the police showed him the CCTV footage.
“I have watched the CCTV from a couple of different angles and quite frankly it is horrifying. For someone to attack his eight years old daughter, I just cannot understand that sort of behaviour. This demands an immediate custodial sentence and it will be increased due to the domestic violence aggravator. Take him down.”
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