Man (52) who treated his wife and daughters like ‘slaves’ jailed for six-and-a-half years
A 52-year-old man who made life “a living hell” for his family has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.
Last November Paul Briscoe was convicted by a jury of six of eight charges from a series of offending in 2019 at the home he shared with his then wife and two daughters.
The defendant, of Piperstown, Drogheda, can be identified after the victims waived their anonymity at a sentence hearing at Dundalk Circuit Court.
The Drogheda native, who has no previous convictions, refuses to accept the jury’s verdict and has shown no remorse.
Evidence was given during the trial that it was a regular occurrence for the man to come home drunk and make life “a living hell”.
The relationship with his ex-wife was described as one of “slave and owner”.
On one occasion he stood over his family with a legally held shotgun demanding that his wife confess to an affair he alleged she was having.
Mr Briscoe denied charges of child cruelty and damaging a kettle on August 5, 2019; possession of a shotgun for an unlawful purpose, producing a shotgun in the course of a dispute and false imprisonment of his ex-wife and two daughters on December 22, 2019.
He also contested using violence with a view to compelling his ex-wife to leave her residence on December 29, 2019, and damaging a toaster and a sun lounger on dates between January 4 and July 4, 2020.
He was acquitted of the last two charges.
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Remanded in custody following the trial he appeared via video link to learn his fate.
His youngest daughter who was aged 13 when the incidents in question began, said in a victim impact statement which she read to the court, that her father never showed interest in her. She grew up with an angry man.
"He single-handedly isolated us. We were under constant control. It was an environment dominated by fear.
"I just wanted my Dad to be nice to me. He only said he loved me when he was under the influence of alcohol.”
She spoke of “multiple Christmases and birthdays disrupted” and living in a constant state of anxiety and fear.
"I thought the way he treated me was normal. He ruined every part of me.”
Her older sister, 16 at the time, detailed how she was “treated as a slave by Mr Briscoe”, forced to pick up cigarette butts and put his socks and shoes on.
Every day she woke up to see what mood he was in, which determined how the day would go.
She didn’t experience a normal childhood, had to seek permission for basic things and was isolated from friends and family.
The young lady said she finds it difficult to believe there are good fathers in the world.
She is afraid to have children because this trauma “could influence what type of parent I might be”.
Their mother spoke of feeling there was no way out. Threatening behaviour "brought me to a very dark place”.
The only thing that kept her going was that the girls’ lives would have been worse without her.
She said she felt scared, useless and weak. The defendant degraded her, sometimes in front of other people.
“No person should ever have to be treated in this way.”
They were left in a financial mess, their home having to be sold.
She concluded by thanking everyone who supported them, friends, family, and particularly Garda Sgt Fiachra Sloan.
Her eldest daughter made four video recordings on her phone of events on August 5 and one, which was audio only, of what occurred on December 29, and these were played in court during last year’s trial.
On the August date the accused came home from the pub and “started his usual fighting”.
He turned a table upside down, ripped his polo short straight down the middle and ran to his youngest daughter, lifting her under the armpits and pinning her against a kitchen cabinet.
He smashed a kettle into the kitchen sink.
The older girl testified that they got a Chinese meal to eat. Her father was drunk. He was throwing food and water around. Her Mam was trying to clean up.
He got really angry, and she decided to record on her phone.
On December 22, when he came from the pub, he threatened to shoot dogs that were at the house.
He went upstairs and brought down one of the shotguns. He stood over his family as they sat on a couch, holding the shotgun across his body. It was unloaded, but they were not aware of that.
The man claimed that his wife was having an affair, of which there was no evidence, and demanded she tell the children what she had done.
On December 29, the defendant’s then wife said that he came home from the pub “ranting and raving”.
He told her that she was going to get out of the house.
“He marched me into the utility room and locked me in the granny flat.”
She was there all night until he let her out the next morning at 9.15-9.30.
Mr Briscoe left the house in June 2020, after an interim barring order was granted against him. Gardaí, accompanied by members of the Armed Support Unit, arrived at the house, served the order on him and removed a legally held Beretta shotgun and double barrel shotgun from a gun safe and 540 shotgun cartridges after he handed them over.
Passing sentence, Judge Dara Hayes said this was serious offending within a family and a home which should have been a place of safety.
The evidence was “sad and difficult to listen to”.
There was little mitigation in the case, the judge continued.
Eight years imprisonment was imposed, the final 18 months suspended for 2 years.
Conditions include that Paul Briscoe places himself under Probation Service supervision and has no contact with his ex-wife and daughters.