Louth man who beat heavily pregnant partner with iron bar in ‘savage attack’ is jailed for six years

By Francis Carroll, The Drogheda Independent

A 25-year-old man who beat his eight months pregnant partner with an iron bar and tried to choke her, has been jailed for six years.

Matthew King savagely attacked the woman, degraded and humiliated her, a judge said at a sentence hearing at Dundalk Circuit Court.

The defendant, of Rassan, Hackballscross, Dundalk, at the time, pleaded guilty to non-fatal strangulation, assault causing harm, false imprisonment and production of a metal bar on April 24, 2024.

He appeared via video link and has been in custody since March, 2025.

The woman said she did not want to be present after giving a Victim Impact Statement at a hearing last November.

The court heard the attack happened at Rassan where the defendant was living in a caravan. On the way there in a taxi the couple argued.

The site manager believed Mr King was under the influence of something, and said that the female declined his offer of help.

During the assault, the defendant choked the woman, kneeled on her stomach and told her she wouldn’t see her family again.

She was left unconscious and woke up on swampy ground outside the caravan, where the man beat her on the legs with a metal bar. He kept telling her to get up and beat her again.

He dragged her back to the caravan, tied her hands and poured bleach and heating oil over her.

She subsequently told gardaí that she thought she was dead. When she refused to perform a sex act on him, he urinated on her.

The victim fell asleep and woke up to find the caravan on fire. She managed to climb out a broken window.

The pair stayed in another caravan that night and the following day went to a filling station in Co. Armagh, where the defendant threw a bin at the shop window and tried to set a bag of coal outside on fire.

PSNI officers brought the woman to the border. Gardaí took her home. A friend persuaded her to go to hospital.

The woman suffered cuts to her body, black eyes and had an acute kidney injury. Her baby was born with no ill effects.

Judge Dara Hayes said that a Victim Impact Statement was brief but powerful.

She revealed that her legs were left permanently scarred. She thought she was going to die. Life would never be the same again.

The defendant has 60 previous convictions, 36 from Northern Ireland, including for assault.

The court heard Matthew King had been adopted as a baby in America and brought back to Ireland aged two.

He claimed that he was devastated at being told about his adoption aged nine, but his mother had told a Probation Officer that he was four when he had been informed on the advice of experts.

He attended school in Newry until being asked to leave after sitting his GCSE exams.

He was introduced to heroin while in prison aged 21, having taken alcohol and other drugs since his early teens.

The defendant was assessed at high risk of reoffending.

It was noted he had engaged with addiction and education services while in custody, has shown remorse and has the support of family.

Judge Dara Hayes said it was a savage, cruel and prolonged attack within an intimate partner relationship when the victim was eight months pregnant.

She had been savagely attacked, degraded and humiliated.

The defendant had previous convictions for offences of violence.

Concurrent sentences of six years and eight months were imposed on each of the first three charges, and one of three years and three months for the fourth.

These were backdated to March 15, 2025, with the final eight months conditionally suspended for two years.

Conditions include that he has no contact with the victim, and places himself under Probation Service supervision for 18 months post release.