A jealous boyfriend has been jailed after he poured a kettle of boiling water mixed with sugar over his pregnant partner. Michael Lynch attacked 25-year-old Tara Byrd, who was four and a half months pregnant with his son, after claiming she had glanced at another man.
The couple started a relationship in March 2015 but Tara told the court the 24-year-old became very controlling of her movements and who she met.
He denied a charge of assault following the attack at their home on July 27 last year but was found guilty by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
On June 7 last year she said her boyfriend had warned her not to go to the local pub to meet friends.
A few weeks later they went camping in Crosshaven, Co Cork, where he warned her not to look at a young man who happened to be staying in the same area.
She pleaded with her boyfriend to allow her to attend hospital but he refused and it was only when a cousin of Lynch’s came to the house the following morning and noticed the burn that she was taken to see medics.
Lynch confronted Tara about the man on July 27, 2015, while she was sitting watching EastEnders at home before he poured the boiling water and sugar mixture.
Tara told the court: “He threw the kettle over my left leg. I was in agony. I did not scream. I was shaking with agony after he poured the sugar water on me. I was there in that constant agony all night.
“He told me if he found me cheating he would kill me and bury me in the woods. I believed him after what he was after doing to me.”
In her victim impact statement, Ms Byrd said her life had been turned upside down.
“I spent ten days in hospital after this where surgeons performed a skin graft on my left leg. I can’t explain how much excruciating pain and shock that this caused me.
“I wasn’t only in fear for my own life and safety but also the safety of my unborn baby.
“I was worried about this right up until he was born. My confidence and self esteem are at an all time low.
‘I am now restricted in my everyday life. For instance I can never expose my leg to sunlight and I don’t think.
I will ever have the confidence to wear a dress or a skirt again. I am reminded of this attack daily.”
The judge said he appreciated that Lynch, of Old Youghal Road in Cork, came from a background of “significant disadvantage” before sentencing him to thirty months in jail.
She said: “If they feel any man is controlling them or being paranoid, get away from them, it will only get worst
