A convicted robber who held his partner hostage in her Eden home while choking and hitting her has been given a three-year prison sentence.
Barry Omahony, 46, was drunk when he went to the woman’s house at around 8.30pm on January 26. He lay down before her conversation with another man about a dog being looked after sparked a row.
During the course of several hours, Omahony, of Church Lane in Great Salkeld, screamed at the woman, smashed her across the face and choked her around a dozen times, leaving her unable to breathe. She was unable to raise the alarm, was scared to move as Omahony fell asleep next to her and described being awake all night before expressing relief at seeing daylight.
“She felt she was held as a hostage,” prosecutor Gerard Rogerson told Carlisle Crown Court today. “‘He has absolutely battered my face’ was her summary of her injuries.”
These included a black eye and strangulation marks on her neck.
“I have never been so scared in my life. I’ve never felt so close to dying,” the woman had stated. “I was petrified if I said the wrong thing he would choke me to death.”
Omahony left the house, later telling police he had just lost it and that his actions were completely excessive. He admitted actual bodily harm assault and false imprisonment, and was sentenced today, when the court heard he was given a 12-year jail term in 2016 for a robbery.
Handing down a three-year prison sentence for the 2022 crimes, Recorder Tony Hawks told the defendant this would not extend the time he would spend in custody having been recalled on licence on the previous robbery punishment.
Omahony’s assault, said the judge, had been unpleasant, disgraceful and squalid. “It was a shocking state of affairs,” added Recorder Hawks. “If you ever, on release, lift your hand to a woman again, you are going to receive another serious sentence of imprisonment.”
