An Irish domestic abuse survivor has revealed the horror of how her partner "held a knife to her throat" as she was holding their baby son.
Jennifer Roy, 36, feels like there isn't enough done to protect victims of abuse.
Her abuser Josh Cheevers, from Strangford View, Killyleagh, was sentenced to 10 months behind bars.
Jennifer told BelfastLive: “I am scared for my own life and my children.
“I don’t want to end up another story on Belfast Live where my children find me dead.
“I am now classed as high risk, my kids are high risk and I am known to police as high risk."
“He has attacked me three times,” she added.
She alleges that he put a knife to her throat in September two years ago.
She said: “My Kyle was 14-months-old and in my arms when he pinned me up against my fridge with an eight inch knife to my throat over my baby, and my daughter was clinging to my waist saying ‘please don’t stab my mummy!’
“When I sit in my kitchen at night, there’s times I look over and I can still see that.
“There’s no sharp knives any more in my drawers. They are hidden because that’s my fear now."
Quarter of sexual assaults reported in 2018 happened over 10 years ago
She also claims that he threw an ashtray at her and another time smashed the house up.
She said: “I actually was pregnant at that stage. I had a miscarriage and he blamed me - he wrecked my house... and then apologised - and that he was just upset that I lost his baby.
“But he told me, ‘I’m going to kill you, you lost our baby’.
“God forgive me, it was a blessing, because I would have had contact for the rest of my life with him.
“Then last June, he headbutted me and threatened to kill me.
“He was still texting me while I was in the police car. Because I had a cancer scare he said, ‘hope you have cancer and rot the f*** away’.
“Police saw all this. Then he was handcuffed and he was right in my face making comments about me and my children.”
Cheevers, 23, was sentenced to 10 months behind bars on April 11 after admitting assaulting Jenny, threats to kill, sending menacing messages, property damage and flouting orders meant to protect her across three dates in June and December 2018.
But the mum-of-three fears he could be walking the streets in a month because of time served and is terrified of more attacks at his hands.
“I am angry, I’m scared and I am so cross,” she added.
“They put a big massive black camera outside my front door that lights up at night if somebody walks past.”
But Jenny said orders and safety measures didn’t stop him in the past.
“He had one of the orders against him when he came to my door with five knives,” she added.
“He kicked my security door through and he has written out of Maghaberry to me twice, which I complained about because he is not allowed.
“He is a danger to women and a risk to the public.”
Women’s Aid Foyle Director Marie Brown said “repeat offending is a big issue” and that “a lot more needs to be done” to protect victims.
She added: “Those are the high risk cases... (and) I don’t think we are documenting it in the way we need to be.”
Marie said she would like to see all domestic abusers put on “mandatory programmes in jail to modify behaviour” and not just when “the money is made available”.
She has also called for a review of sentences, the introduction of coercive control legislation and more joined-up work between justice, health, the wider community, education and children’s services.
“We need to start looking at best practice and addressing domestic violence in this generation so we prevent it in the next,” she added.
“We know it’s happening every 17 minutes... but there is a whole range of under reporting” and “a range of things we can do to make life better for victims”.
Detective Superintendent Ryan Henderson said: “I want to encourage anyone suffering from domestic abuse to call police on 101 or, in an emergency, 999.”
Any affected by the issues in this article can call the 24-hour Domestic and Sexual Abuse Helpline on 0808 802 1414.
