At Waterford Circuit Court, a jury of six men and six women heard evidence from the injured party and a Garda witness.

Connors was represented by defence barrister Gareth Hayden BL under the instruction of solicitor Ken Cunningham.

Niall Storan BL acted as prosecuting counsel on behalf of the State ad Judge Eugene O'Kelly presided over the trial proceedings.

Evidence

The injured party was the first witness to give evidence from the stand. She told the jury how on the night of June 26, 2024, she was in Connors' flat and sharing a bottle of vodka. They had been in a relationship at the time of the incident. The victim said that at around 9pm, Connors mood darkened and he told her to leave the flat, which she did.

She said to Mr Storan: “I don’t know what happened, his attitude just changed like. He told me to leave and I wasn't refusing to leave.”

Connors followed her out of the flat and kicked her down a flight of stairs. She said: "I went flying, I landed on the flat of my back. I wasn't expecting it. I looked up and he was staring at me from the top of the stairs."

The victim dragged herself into a nearby flat that belonged to a relative. There was no lock on the door as it had been broken few weeks previously. She said: "There was no way of locking the door." 

Twenty minutes later, as she got ready to go to bed, Connors followed her into the bedroom and began punching her and grabbing fistfuls of her hair. He pinned her onto the bed, holding her wrists above her head and headbutted her '8 to 11' times. 

She said: "He dragged me down on the bed, he was basically holding me down. I was scared, I couldn't move. I was pleading with him."

"Did he stop?," asked Mr Storan. "No." was her reply. 

The woman managed to escape the building after Connors fell asleep on the bed. She made her way to Waterford Garda Station and spoke to on-duty Garda Louise Carney. Garda Carney saw that the woman was 'very distressed and scared' and had visible injuries on her face. 

The victim said: "I was shaking, I was delirious. She [Garda Carney] asked me to go to hospital and I refused." The woman told the Court that she was intoxicated and "in too much of a state" to go to hospital. Garda Carney took a photo of the woman's swollen, bruised face. 

The woman made her official statement to Gardaí six weeks after the attack. Mr Hayden noted that in her official statement she referred to her being 'thrown' down the stairs instead of 'kicked'. He said to her: "I am suggesting to you that you fell down the stairs." She said: "No, I was kicked." Mr Storan said in his closing speech to the jury that the word 'thrown' was a colloquialism and to: "Put yourself in the position of a victim of domestic violence."

Connors was found guilty on one count of assault and one count of false imprisonment. He will be sentenced on October 7. 

Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme.