A young mum assaulted by a former TV soap star has spoken of her horror ordeal as she declared: “I feel let down by the system.”
Sarah Behan was attacked by her then partner Patrick Fitzpatrick, who played Zumo Bishop in RTE’s Fair City, in a beating that went on for over two hours.
She relives the trauma of the violent attack and the 16 court hearings afterwards despite Fitzpatrick’s eventual guilty plea in a new RTE Investigates documentary.
The hard-hitting investigation reveals that emergency calls relating to domestic violence have increased four-fold in one year and refuges are now at crisis point.
Recalling the attack on September 18, 2016, Sarah said: “I got beaten badly.
“He pulled me back from the window, by the hair, and dragged me, and tried to strangle me for what felt like an eternity.
“I could see the room closing in. I was contemplating jumping out. I wasn’t sure how I would do it, I was just thinking survival mode. Flight or fight. A choice, will I just jump... then I was pulled back.”
She added: “I thought he was the best thing since sliced bread, there was nobody like him. I had never been with anyone like him.
“He was obviously a fantastic actor, but he acted in real life as well.
“It started with romanticising and love bombing, treating me like a princess, and then it was like a switch.
“He was upfront and told me he had abused women before in past relationships. But of course, I thought I could fix him.
“And then it got worse, worse and worse. It was regular, all I did was curl up into a ball, I didn’t have any fight left in me. He’d broken me down so much.”
The documentary reveals the human stories behind the statistics – from coercive control to repeated patterns of domestic violence, femicide and the traumatic journey through the justice system.
In Sarah’s experience, when the case came up in the district court, it was continually put back.
The assault charge against Patrick Fitzpatrick, for which he pleaded guilty, was remanded before the courts 14 times, followed by a further two appeal hearings.
Sarah said: “It was trauma relieved over and over, and over again. It was constant, that I could not put it to rest, I could not move on.”
Sarah’s mother Antoinette attended every one of the remand hearings which dragged on for almost two-and-a-half years.
She said: “It was just put off put off put off, held back, and pushed back, for two years, repeatedly, for two years four months to be precise.
“We were told that their defence was not ready, and that is why the cases were pushed back.
“The lowest point [was] when during the hearing, the judge looked at the medical report, and on the report it had that she had clumps of hair missing, and bruises on her face, and jaws.”
In May 2018 Fitzpatrick was given 12 months probation for an assault on a previous partner who he punched twice in the jaw at his home in Ballymun, North Dublin, in 2015.
Sarah’s case was finally resolved in January 2019 – but most of that sentence was suspended, so that Fitzpatrick only served two days in prison for that assault.
Sarah said: “I thought he would go away for a year or two at least, for all the things he has done but he got one month that was it, a suspended sentence then.
“I feel let down by the system really.”
Her mum Antoinette added: “I could not protect her. So, no matter how old your baby is, it’s tough. The psychological impacts are lifelong.
“She is a different girl to what she was before.”
RTE Investigates – Domestic Abuse, a Year of Crisis was filmed over 12 months in refuges and support services across the country. Staff describe their daily struggle to keep survivors safe, because a shortage in refuge places means they are forced to live with their abusers.
Numbers contacting domestic violence support services increased significantly last year, with a marked correlation with Covid-19 restrictions.
Anne Clarke of Offaly Domestic Violence Support Services revealed a rise in the number of men asking for help as well as women.
She said: “Coercive control is extremely common for a male victim. If you are a man in this country, you have zero options for a refuge, there is nowhere to go.
“Some services do help, and support men, but there are very few. Women predominantly remain the highest ratio of domestic abuse victims, and that is why the services are directed more for women.
“Our service is different, we support male victims as well, percentage wise 25% of our clients would be male.”
Figures show one in four women in Ireland who have been in a relationship have been abused by a current or former partner.
International figures indicate one in nine men have experienced abuse from their partner.
One male victim Peter (not his real name) told RTE Investigates: “It is something that just crept up on me and I didn’t realise I was in that situation until the day I called a halt to it.
“I realised things were not normal. My goodness, today I can look back and say no, things were not normal. It is to not have control of your money, it’s not normal to be put down, it’s not normal to have things thrown at you, to be slapped. You are treated like, nearly like a dog
“I did not see it until the end. You cannot help a person like that. You have to run, I should have run years ago. The warning signs were there.
“Who do you turn to? Who is going to believe you? And if you even tell someone, are they going to believe you?”
- RTE Investigates – Domestic Abuse, A Year Of Crisis is on tomorrow at 9.35pm on RTE One.
