A man who treated wife 'like a servant' jailed for six months and ordered to pay own costs

The court heard that he drank his wages away leaving her to pay the bills and “repeatedly told her to her face to die”.

There was no mention of violence or threats in today’s hearing.

On the day he was due to go on trial last month, Kevin McAleese entered a guilty plea to a single charge of domestic abuse in that for two and a half years from February 1, 2022, until 12 August last year, the 62-year-old subjected his wife to a course of behaviour which caused her to “suffer physical or psychological harm.”

Originally dealt with in the Magistrates Court, McAleese, from Maxwells Road in Kells, was handed a six-month jail sentence but freed on bail pending appeal of the sentence.

At Antrim County Court today, a prosecuting lawyer outlined how police attended a report of a disturbance on August 12 last year and spoke to the victim “at the front door, away from the defendant.”

She was "visibly upset" and told officers her husband had come home drunk after being with friends in Belfast for most of the day, describing how he had been verbally abusive towards her, swearing and calling her names in “behaviour which had become intolerable.”

Having asked police to help escort him away, the victim outlined that before that night he had had "repeatedly told her to die and told her to ‘f*** off' back to Scotland'."

McAleese, the court heard, "constantly shouted and swore at her on a daily basis" and his behaviour was worse when he was drinking, "which would be a lot of the time".

He told Judge Alistair Devlin: "She said he financially abuses her and treated her like a servant and that despite earning more money than her, it was her responsibility to pay the household bills as he spent his earnings on alcohol.”

The judge also heard how McAleese “became abusive when she does not have his work clothing washed and ironed to his standard" and despite her attempts to separate from him and "set him up with a flat,” he returned to the matrimonial home and continued the abuse.

Before defence counsel Chris Holmes could begin his plea in mitigation, Judge Devlin revealed that in the pre-sentence report from the Probation board, McAleese claimed “he only pleaded guilty on legal advice” and further that “he also denied being verbally abusive or derogatory and denied that alcohol was a problem”.

“His instructions are that he does accept it,” said Mr Holmes.

"It is sometimes difficult to come to terms with the fact to that your behaviour simply is not acceptable.”

Conceding that McAleese’s behaviour “was unconscionable,” the barrister submitted that rather than jailing the defendant “he would benefit from some type of education that could be provided to him by Probation.”

Judge Devlin disagreed.

“There was complete and utter denial of the prosecution case which is of course utter nonsense,” declared the judge.

“To tell your wife repeatedly to her face to die and to f*** off back to Scotland, treated like a servant with no contribution to household bills and drinking your money….simply is not acceptable,” said Judge Devlin as he affirmed the six-month prison sentence.

The judge also declined to grant legal aid, ruling that McAleese “earns money for drink so he can pay for his own lawyers.”