A domestic abuser tried to ‘emotionally blackmail’ his victim into ‘calling off the police’, a court heard.

Police were called to Gerard Mulcahy’s Bicester home on November 4 last year after the 48-year-old threatened to take his own life.

Earlier that day, he had assaulted his wife by barging past her with his head down and pushing her back with his hands. He then put a hole through a wall, although he later had the damage repaired at his own expense.

Mulcahy was arrested then bailed with conditions not to contact his wife and not to go to the family home.

Within days he had breached the bail conditions, sending her a message claiming that he had ‘nowhere to go’ having fallen out with his father.

By the beginning of December the coupler were in ‘regular contact’. The victim was said to have felt like she ‘couldn’t refuse him’.

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He came to stay for the weekend, arrived with his bags packed then failed to return to his father’s home.

From early December, he had begun to ‘guilt trip’ his wife into withdrawing her statement to the police. He claimed that the police involvement and the lack of support from mental health services were affecting his mental wellbeing.

“He wanted to know when I was going to call the police off and stop the prosecution,” the victim was said to have told police.

“He was saying he could not cope and it was too much.”

In a victim impact statement read to the court on Thursday (June 1), she said that the events of November 4 last year were the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’. She added: “The months and years of walking on eggshells had to end.”

Mulcahy, of Mallards Way, Bicester, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to perverting the course of justice, common assault and criminal damage. He had no previous convictions.

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Recorder John Hardy KC, sentencing, characterised the perverting the course of justice charge as ‘emotional blackmail’ of his wife.

“You rather lost control of yourself as your relationship spiralled out of control. I have a sympathy for your mental health difficulties but nevertheless they do not excuse what you did,” he said.

The judge imposed eight months’ imprisonment and a five year restraining order limiting contact with his ex-partner.

He had served the equivalent of the eight month jail sentence on remand and, within hours of the sentencing hearing, had been released from custody on licence.