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AN Omagh man who filmed his victim while she was made to eat food off the floor has failed in a legal bid to secure a reduced prison sentence.
The Court of Appeal rejected claims that the five-year term imposed on 41-year-old Barry Maguire was manifestly excessive.
Maguire, from Omagh but with an address at Southwell Road in Bangor, subjected his former partner to a campaign of violent and emotional control.
Police said she had suffered a series of cruel and demoralising acts.
The victim, a qualified doctor, reportedly began a relationship with him in 2021 during a vulnerable period when she did not have other friends or family close by.
Initial bouts of verbal abuse were said to have progressed him further degradation and physical acts of strangulation and choking the woman.
She claimed he took away her phone and wallet so she could not access help.
In November 2023 a neighbour alerted the PSNI after hearing an altercation at the home.
The woman was found crawling on her hands and knees away from him in clear need of help.
Officers called to the scene detected bruises all over her body in various stages of healing following weeks of sustained violence.
She had been pinned to the ground and unable to breathe in repeated incidents where Maguire held his hand over her mouth and nose, according to the police.
Fearing for her life at times, she had been filmed while forced to eat off the floor, called names and spat on during the strangulations.
The woman later told how Maguire had threatened to shove the food down her throat if she did not comply with his demands.
His degrading actions left her traumatised and without self-confidence.
Maguire subsequently admitted a series of domestic abuse and non-fatal strangulation offences.
In October last year he received a five-year sentence at Dungannon Crown Court, with half to be served in custody and the rest on licence.
Defence lawyers argued that the term imposed was manifestly excessive.
Maguire’s barristers, Ian Turkington KC and Damien Halleron, also claimed the trial judge used the wrong methodology for a sentence aggravated by domestic abuse.
But prosecution counsel insisted the correct prison term was imposed for what she described as particular humiliating behaviour.
Backing those submissions, judges sitting in the Court of Appeal dismissed Maguire’s challenge.
Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan indicated a different process should have been adopted during sentencing.
However, she confirmed, “Applying the correct methodology, we consider in any event that the sentence in this case for the offending that occurred is not manifestly excessive.
“We will give our (full) reasons within the next three weeks.”
