Man with Magherafelt address used recording device to check if his partner was cheating on him, court hears
A man who left a recording device to check in his house to check if his partner was cheating on him has been placed on Probation for two years at Magherafelt Magistrates Court.
Jacek Marek Rzeszotalski, aged 34, from Leckagh Drive, Magherafelt, admitted a charge of domestic abuse by engaging in a course of behavour that was abusive of another person and likely to cause her to suffer physical or psychological harm between January 1 and August 12, 2024.
Passing sentence, District Judge Conor Heaney told the defendant that he had exposed his ex-partner to psychological harm owing to his actions.
Referring to a pre-sentence report, the judge remarked that the defendant continued to lack insight into the seriousness of his offending.
Mr Heaney ordered that Rzeszotalski take part in Probation programmes for reasoning and thinking skills, victim awareness, and conflict coping.
Prosecuting counsel said on August 12, 2024, the injured party called at the police station and reported ongoing issues with her ex-partner, the defendant.
He said she did not make a written statement of complaint but made allegations that the defendant had threatened to kill her and then kill himself.
Counsel said the injured party believed he had left a recording device in the home and had broken her car key.
When interviewed about the matter, Rzeszotalski made “significant admissions” that he had been checking on her fidelity and had left a recording device in the toilet with the record on.
In response to the threats, he admitted that he had “texted her something about that.” He said the broken car key had been an accident.
A defence lawyer said Rzeszotalski` described himself as a “paranoid partner” whose actions were unacceptable.
He said the defendant had entered a plea of guilty to the charge at the earliest opportunity.
"He has accepted what he has done and his actions were unacceptable,” he said.
He pointed out that there was nothing relevant, or of this nature, in his record.
The lawyer stressed the injured party had not made a statement of complaint.
He explained that she had a step-daughter and daughter with the defendant and the parties, although not back together, now had amicable contact with each other.