SENTENCE SLAM 

Murder victim’s family rage after ‘unacceptable’ sentence for thug who beat partner in front of her kids

• Published: 7:00, 31 Jan 2023

MURDER victim Jennie Poole’s family have told of their fury after a man who beat his ­partner in front of her kids dodged jail.

Matthew Telford, 32, avoided prison last week despite being convicted of a horror hotel attack.

The thug assaulted his partner in front of her children in a row over the air conditioning in their room at the Carlton Hotel in Tyrelstown, Dublin.

Telford squeezed the woman’s face before throwing her on the bed.

The brute grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the floor where he continued to slap and kick her.

The woman then tripped and broke her wrist

Telford, of Ardmeen Green, Downpatrick, Co Down, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm at the hotel on August 13, 2019.

Sentencing the thug last week, Judge Martin Nolan, described the attack as “cowardly”.

But Telford was let off with a two-year suspended sentence on condition he hand over €4,000 to the woman and a further €5,000 in two years.

The Poole family have been calling for urgent new laws and support services to help domestic abuse victims since Jennie, 24, was killed by her psycho ex-partner Gavin Murphy, 31, in April 2021.

Reacting to Telford dodging jail, Jennie’s brother Jason insisted the courts are handing out “too many” suspended sentences for gender-based crimes.

And crusading Jason called for minimum sentencing to be introduced urgently.

He told The Irish Sun: “Our justice system is totally broken.

“The sentence handed down by Judge Martin Nolan is unacceptable.

“It shouldn’t depend on the judge. There should be very clear sentencing criteria, with minimum sentences.

“The Government needs to look at the full system as a matter of urgency.

“Because there is no point in the guards doing all of their investigations, following up complaints from victims of abuse, bringing cases to court, and it is up in the air what happens.

“We need a full review of our sentencing, there should be minimum sentences for domestic violence cases.

“And obviously, based on the severity and if there are weapons involved in the attack, you can add on further time to the sentence.
“But we don’t have that at the moment.”

Frustrated Jason is to meet the acting Justice Minister Simon Harris next month amid an explosion of violence against women.

And he warned victims of domestic abuse are being “retraumatised” by the current sentencing regime.

Jason told us: “Victims who are in fear of their lives, who are taking that step to report the abuse, to bring their abuser to court, that is a huge step for a woman to take.

“It is a huge step first of all to get away from an abuser.

“And then seeing that through when they go to the guards takes it to another level.

“It gets investigated, they do the interviews, they bring the abuser to court, they have the bravery to do all that and then the judge suspends the sentence.