Victim blasts suspended sentence for brute who dragged her ‘half-naked’ along road

The woman, who suffered ‘cuts and burns’ after the attack by thug William Galvin, also reveals today how the brute remotely stalked her, watching her on cameras he’d installed in her home, and kept keys to the house, for weeks after the attack.

Galvin (33) walked free from Mullingar Circuit Court last week with a suspended 21-month-sentence ‘with rigidly enforced conditions’ after pleading guilty to assault.

Judge Keenan Johnson handed down the sentence after noting that Galvin had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed medication which ‘significantly reduced his risk of reoffending’.

Today, in her first interview since she watched Galvin walk free from court, the woman, who asked that her identity not be revealed, said she was ‘disappointed’ at a sentence that she did not believe to be ‘fair’ or reflective of the impact Galvin’s actions had on her and her four children..

Galvin’s sentencing follows that of soldier Cathal Crotty who received a three year suspended sentence at Limerick Circuit Court for assaulting Natasha O’Brien – a sentencing that sparked protests across the country.

“He (Galvin) played the victim card,” the woman told the Sunday World.

“He used his mental health to avoid being sent to prison, that’s what I believe.

“But what about my mental health?

“I suffered with depression and was suicidal after what he did to me – to the point where I was even afraid to stay in my own home.

“I don’t think that’s fair. This man said he was going to walk me like a dog.”

The woman said she had first come into contact with Galvin when he fitted security cameras in her home.

They had a brief relationship before the woman became concerned about aspects of Galvin’s behaviour and ended things.

But she said Galvin continued to watch her through the cameras on an app he’d installed on his phone, and continued to phone her.

“This all happened three years ago,” she said.

On the morning of November 8, 2021, Galvin rang her after she’d left the house to drop her younger children to school.

“He’d obviously watched me leaving the house,” she said, “and then he came to my home and let himself in with a key he’d gotten cut.

“The most frightening thing for me was that when that man entered my house, my 19-year-old daughter was asleep upstairs by herself.

“And you can see on the CCTV that he came into my home with a drill.

“A short time later, he came back out with the hoover and then he went back in for another 10 minutes, and he came out with more items in his hands, which were two of my watches and a sum of money.”

She added: “After he left, he rang me and said ‘you’ll get a shock when you see the present I’ve left you at home’.”

The woman said while Galvin was talking she could hear another voice in the background and knew he was at a house in the Manor Valley estate in Athlone, Co Westmeath.

She said she went to the address and spotted his van with her hoover in the back of it.

“I went in to grab it, and before I knew it, he was behind me,” she said.

“He grabbed me by my ponytail and whacked my head off the kerb, and literally dragged me along the path.

“I completely blanked out at that stage.

“I was literally gone.

“But as he was dragging me, my bottoms came off and he dragged me half-naked along the road.

“When I came round, I still had a piece of the hoover in my hand, and that’s when I rang the guards and they came.

“He’d just left me there after he dropped me.”

The woman said that for weeks after the attack, Galvin continued to spy on her using the cameras through an app he’d installed on his phone.

“He was still watching me for three or four weeks after that and the guards had to get him to delete the app in front of them in the station,” she recalled.

“He harassed me for six months after the attack, to the point where me and my kids had to up and leave the house.

“I changed my number 10 times, and I couldn’t even stay in the house because he had taken a key and gotten four keys cut.

“I had to get a whole new lock put on the house.

“Every noise we heard at night, we’d be jumping up to look out the window … that’s pure fear in itself.”

Asked if she believes Galvin is still a danger to her, the woman said: “He went very quiet when the case was coming up, but that’s not to say it will stay like that.

“It took my eldest, who is 19, a good year-and-a-half to get over it.

“Am I still afraid of him? Well, if I saw him and I was on my own, I definitely wouldn’t let him see me.

“They asked me in the court if I wanted to speak, but I wasn’t able for it to be honest.”

She added: “Maybe if I had, the judge might have seen things differently – but I just wasn’t able for it.

“I don’t want to say I’m angry at the judge because that might be too strong.

“I’m disappointed.

“He (the judge) made the decision that he felt was best, but in saying that, if I went out and committed a crime like that, I believe I’d be in Mountjoy right now.

“I am afraid even now speaking out in case it brings retaliation back to my home.

“I feel I got no justice out of this.

“But I don’t believe he’ll come near me again because, like the judge said, if he does, he’ll definitely be going to jail.”

Imposing sentence last week, Judge Keenan Johnson noted Galvin’s bipolar diagnosis and the fact he is now medicated.

Judge Keenan Johnson also ordered him to pay the woman just over €7,500 and never to contact her or her family.

He warned Galvin of the stringent terms, which are to be “rigidly enforced”, and that breaking them would result in imprisonment.

Judge Johnson described the crime as “absolutely despicable”.

He added: “The message has to go out loud and clear that that type of offending is not going to be tolerated under any circumstances.”

The Probation Service assessed Galvin as being at moderate risk of offending.

A pre-sentence report highlighted issues about his ability to understand social boundaries, negative peers, abuse of alcohol and drugs, and lack of formal employment or financial independence.

The report also cited Galvin’s failure to deal with the death of his mother when he was 16, and the recent diagnosis.

Judge Johnson set a headline sentence of two years and six months, which he reduced to one year and nine months and suspended – with “stringent” conditions to foster rehabilitation.