RIANNA MOORE, THE former partner of personal trainer John Peters who was jailed last week for assaulting her, has spoken out about the trauma the relationship and abuse caused her.

Peters was jailed for two years and two months for assault and assault causing harm to Ms Moore, as well as criminal damage, over several incidents that occurred between 2022 and 2023.

He was a personal trainer and businessman at a female-only gym in Dún Laoghaire.

Passing sentence, Judge Martina Baxter said there was no evidence of contrition on Peters’s part for his actions, and no evidence he was taking steps to address his temper and aggression.

Peters pleaded guilty to the charges after initially denying all allegations to gardaí, which included handing in a prepared statement that made “adverse” comments as to Ms Moore’s character.

Ms Moore spoke to RTÉ’s Kieran Cuddihy on Liveline this afternoon, where she outlined the impact her relationship with Peters had on her.

The two initially met on a dating app, and the relationship sparked from there. In the beginning, Ms Moore said, “it was magical”, and she didn’t see what was starting to happen, blinded by emotions.

The couple, whose relationship lasted three years, moved in together. Less than a year after moving into together, Peters assaulted Ms Moore.

The court heard there was also suggestion of controlling behaviour.

Ms Moore said that the relationship soured “very slowly and over a long period of time”, where she became “so trapped and embodied in that experience” that she couldn’t “see straight”.

“On the weekend that he was first arrested, I knew something bad was going to happen.

“I feared for my life that weekend, and I had for the first time texted a friend to say that I needed help, and I had never done that before.

“It was at a point of literally I was desperate,” she continued. “I had never asked for help before, and when I had sent that text message, my phone was then taken off me by him and that message was tried to be removed.”

After a short period of time, the gardaí arrived at their apartment to perform a safety check.

Ms Moore said that by contacting her friend, she was drawing a line under the relationship, which ended from that point.

John Peters pictured outside court last week. Irishphotodesk.ie Irishphotodesk.ie

After the relationship Ms Moore said she didn’t recognise herself and felt great deals of shame and guilt. This was exacerbated by the trial process, which took three years from complaint to sentencing.

Her therapy notes were used as evidence in trial, which Ms Moore described as “traumatising”.

“You have to give over absolutely everything, your deepest, darkest thoughts,” she said. Peters had made attempts to cast aspersions over Ms Moore’s mental health, and she feared that the use of her therapy notes would be used to further this.

Asked if she felt she has got justice with Peters’s sentencing, she said, “I don’t know if I have processed enough yet to know if I have gotten justice.

“I definitely have gotten accountability.

“In that relationship, I never got a sorry, you know, you hear of these kinds of typical relationships, I would say that I would have read about where the person abuses and then they’re very sorry.

“I never got that. I never heard the word sorry. I never had any accountability. I was always told that I did it to myself and that it was my fault.

“So, to hear the word guilty for the very first time was a huge amount of accountability for me that I needed for my healing.”