A Garda who put a tracker on his wife’s phone, recorded conversations and ordered her to stay at home, treated her like a ‘chattel’, a judge has said.

David Reynolds, 45, pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour from January 1, 2019, until July 18, 2022, which would have had a serious effect on his wife, Ashley Masterson, right, from whom he is now separated.

Adjourning sentencing until October 6, Judge Keenan Johnson said yesterday that Westmeath-based Reynolds had a serious anger management problem, and that the level of manipulation and control was an aggravating factor.

He remarked that Reynolds – who is currently suspended without pay – ‘has a very old-fashioned attitude that is left long in the past in Ireland today’.

Judge Johnson told defence counsel: ‘In history, a man’s wife was his chattel, was his property. It seems a remnant of that is attributable to your client.’

Ms Masterson sat silently in the public gallery and asked for her victim impact statement to be read into the record at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court.

It opened with the words: ‘I waive my right to anonymity’, allowing them both to be named. Her statement continued: ‘As a result of my marriage, I have been left with constant fatigue, stress and anxiety. The ongoing arguments, control and bullying have left me emotionally scarred and with massive trust issues against people, even when they are trying to help me; I push them away to protect myself.

‘I am filled with sadness and shame that I have missed out on the most important years of my children’s childhood.’

She described how the ordeal left her financially destroyed, while living on the fourth floor of an apartment block that ‘resembles an attic’.

Ms Masterson said: ‘All I can hope for is for things to improve, but I live with that feeling of dread that this is as good as life gets for us. I hope I manage to move on and make the best of things, but the tiredness of the last decade makes me feel like giving up most days.’

She added: ‘I feel like I’ve lost my own personality and nearly hate going places and seeing how happy and normal other family units are.’

The court heard that the seizure of Reynolds’s phone revealed 13 hours of recorded conversations with his ex-wife in the course of which he accused her of lying, or infidelity, and said he did not want her to see a friend he disapproved of and stopped her from leaving the house.

In the recordings, the couple could be heard shouting at each other, with sounds of the arguments becoming physical on both sides.

Some recordings continued after the arguments, during which Reynolds could be heard sobbing. The father-of-three also called gardaí to carry out unnecessary welfare checks on Ms Masterson. He also told gardaí that he earned the money and his wife spent it.

Reynolds joined An Garda Síochána in 2003, and from the following year, he worked out of Dublin Castle in traffic policing before being transferred to the Westmeath Division in 2019.

Sergeant Orla Keenan, of Mullingar Garda Station, agreed that Reynolds was the sole income earner in the household, and that the recordings reflected calm periods and periods of escalation, as well as household issues, particularly as they moved toward separation.

The sergeant agreed that things de-escalated quite quickly. The defence said that there appeared to be financial pressures; that Reynolds, with an address near Mullingar, had a long commute while working in Dublin; and that both individuals were dealing with mental health issues.

The court was told their issues waxed and waned, and the sergeant said their relationship fluctuated as indicated by statements of withdrawal.

Reynolds’s lawyer, Andrea Callan, said her client was involved in his children’s lives and that he was devastated by the situation. She submitted that his guilty plea was of significant value.

The accused did not address the court. The court heard he faces dismissal from the force. He has been suspended since January, has obtained construction work, and has become extremely isolated.

Sentencing was adjourned pending preparation of a counselling report.