EXCLUSIVE | 

‘Monster’ woman-beater jailed for two years over brutal assaults on young mother

‘Jail is too good for him …. too good for what he did to me’

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These are the horrific injuries inflicted by a self-described ‘monster’ Shane Troope on the terrified mother of his two small children.

In a series of sickening and brutal physical assaults, the 28-year-old Wexford man:

* Hit Leanne Hogan repeatedly over the head with his mobile phone, so hard, he smashed the device and left blood streaming down her neck;

* Dragged her by the hair onto a bed where he punched and kicked her to the point of unconsciousness, leaving her face and body covered in bruises;

* And, pressed a 10-inch kitchen knife to her stomach after invading her home, leaving her in desperate fear ‘this was the moment I was going to die.’

Today, days after beast Troope was given two years in prison for the series of violent assaults, Leanne says she feels lucky she is alive to tell her story.

“There were times I felt like I wasn’t going to make it,” she said.

“Times I feared he was going to kill me … and I had thoughts of suicide because I felt that was the only way out.

“But I want people who are in the same position as I was to know there is help out there and a life beyond this nightmare.”

For Leanne, who became involved with Troope in 2015 when she was still just 18-years-old, says the threat of violence and abuse became an ever present in her life.

“After we moved in together … that’s when things started to change little by little,” she said.

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“But the last two years of the relationship, that’s when the violence got really bad. savagery

“He’d gotten heavy into the drink and drugs, sniffing cocaine and drinking vodka.

“And when he did he became, and he used these words himself, he became a monster…

Appearing for sentence at Wexford Circuit Court last week, Troope pleaded guilty to three of the worst assaults he perpetrated on Leanne in the final two years of their relationship.

The assaults were characterised by a brutality and savagery that caused experienced Judge James McCourt to agree with Troope’s own characterisation of himself as ‘a monster’.

The first occurred in December 2020. Leanne was sitting in their apartment at the rear of Toss Byrne’s in Gorey when she asked Troope about a text he was sending to another woman.

“Because it was first thing in the morning and he hadn’t had his fix, he just lashed out,” Leanne said.

“He went absolutely mad. And then he started smashing the corner of the phone off my head.

“I don’t know how many times he hit me but it was multiple times. And the phone cracked, it was all smashed by the time he stopped.

“The blood was running down the back of my neck and I screamed at him: ‘You’re after breaking something, I’m bleeding.’

“And he looked down at me and, excuse my language, he just shouted at me: ‘I don’t give a f**k’. And after that it only got worse.

“I was always afraid of Shane, walking on egg-shells, but I was extra scared of him after that, of him being violent and how far he could take it.”

The next assault Troope was charged with occurred on a day when Leanne woke him at 3pm or 4pm to ask him for help with the children.

Her partner’s reaction was ferocious.

“He jumped up out of the bed and basically punched the head off me,” Leanne remembers.

“He grabbed me by the hair, swinging punches and kicks.

“Even though he’s a small chap there’s a lot of strength in him and I couldn’t defend myself at all. I’d beg him to stop but it meant nothing.”

Pictures of the aftermath of that assault show how Leanne was left covered in bruises.

But worse was to come.

By late 2022, Troope had been asked to leave the couple’s apartment at the rear of Toss Byrne’s by their landlord.

But, on a date nearing the end of the month, the 28-year-old tuned up at the property drunk, carrying a bag of cans, and began smashing in the glass panels of the front door in a bid to get access to the property.

“He put his head straight through the glass – I don’t know how he didn’t slice his throat,” said Leanne.

After a neighbour called the gardaí, Troope left.

But, he returned again after the officers departed the scene.

This time, after getting into the property, Troope went on a rampage, ripping out the contents of the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen.

And blaming Leanne for alerting the gardaí earlier, he picked up a 10-inch kitchen knife from the floor and held it to her stomach.

“At that moment, I thought he was finally going to do it – he was going to kill me – and I said that to the gardaí in my statement,” Leanne recalls.