Watch: RTÉ Investigates - Domestic Abuse, A Year Of Crisis this Monday, February 7th at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTE Player.RTÉ HAS LAUNCHED a new Player service after receiving numerous complaints from viewers about streaming problems. She is a different girl to what she was before.” So, no matter how old your baby is, it’s tough. Sarah Behan: “ I feel let down by the system really.”Īntoinette Behan : “ I could not protect her. It meant he served two days in prison for that assault. The following January, the remainder of a sentence for the assault on Sarah was suspended. That assault was finally dealt with in May 2018 when he received a 12-month probation bond. Sarah Behan: “ 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.”Ī year before his attack on Sarah Behan, Fitzpatrick assaulted a previous partner at his home in Ballymun in 2015, punching her twice in the jaw. The prosecution of Patrick Fitzpatrick was finally resolved in January 2019. The lowest point, when during the hearing, the judge looked at the medical report, and on the medical report it had that she clumps of hair missing, and bruises on her face, and jaws.” We were told that their defence was not ready, and that is why the cases were pushed back.” Antoinette Behan: “ It was just put off, put off put off, held back, and pushed back, for two years, repeatedly, for two years 4 months to be precise. Sarah’s mother Antoinette attended all of the remand hearings. It was constant, that I could not put it to rest, I could not move on.” Sarah Behan: “ It was trauma relieved over and over, and over again. Dublin woman went through "two years of hell" after being assaulted by ex-Fair City star.Former Fair City star Patrick Fitzpatrick avoids jail for punching and biting ex-partner during vicious attack.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. He’d broken me down so much I had no fight left.”īut when the case came up in the district court, it was put back again and again. It was regular, all I did was curl up into a ball, I didn’t have any fight left in me. But of course, I thought I could fix him.Īnd then it got worse, worse and worse. He was upfront and told me he had abused women before in past relationships. It started with romanticising and love bombing, treating me like a princess, and then it was like a switch. He was obviously a fantastic actor, but he acted in real life as well. I thought he was the best thing since sliced bread, there was nobody like him. Patrick Fitzpatrick and Sarah Behan (Image: Collins) A choice, will I just jump … then I was pulled back. I wasn’t sure how I would do it, I was just thinking about survival mode. That was the window I was contemplating jumping out of, possibly breaking both my two legs and pelvis. He pulled me back from the window, by the hair, and dragged me, and tried to strangle me for what felt like an eternity and I could see the room closing in. The attack actually went on for over two hours, according to Sarah. On Sept 18th 2016, Sarah Behan was assaulted by her then partner Patrick Fitzpatrick, who was an actor in RTÉ’s Fair City playing the character “Zumo” from 2007 to 2016. One survivor is Sarah Behan, who felt let down by a system, after her abuser spent only two days in prison after she endured 16 court dates despite her attacker pleading guilty. We are getting four times the amount of calls than we were getting pre- covid.” The rise in domestic abuse cases has been fourfold in the last 12 months and tonight, RTE Investigates, looks at several refugees across the country as the services reach crisis point while staff struggle to keep sufferers safe.Ĭatherine Casey from Kerry refuge: “We have had women ringing in the middle of the night, whispering at the end of the phone.
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