Man smothered & raped wife while armed with knife

Jailed for 12.5 years as victim now 'isolated from Travelling community'

- BY FIONA FERGUSON

A MAN who raped and smothered his wife while armed with a knife during an incident in which she was afraid she would be killed has been jailed for 12 and a half years.

The Central Criminal Court heard the victim is now raising her children alone, having become isolated from the rest of the Travelling community for bringing her former husband to court.

She said it was "not the Traveller way" to bring their own to court and she had believed for a time he would do better.

She wanted her kids to have two parents and for them to be good role models.

She said other women in her community would have just put up with what happened but she had followed through on the case for the sake of her own girls.

She said the truth was now out and that she was not the monster - the accused man is the monster.