A jet-setting Australian property executive who repeatedly hit his Russian wife during drunken arguments at their French home has been sentenced to a year in jail.
Damien Carew, 44, twice strangled his wife Anna Polianskaya, also translated as Ana Polianski, and slammed her head against the side of a bathtub, landing her in hospital, a court in Nice, France, heard this week. .
The arguments between Carew, a graduate of Melbourne’s prestigious St Kevin’s College, and his wife occurred when he returned home in late 2022 after spending a year in detention related to a separate money laundering investigation.
“We were drinking all day and sometimes we would start arguing and there would be violence on my part,” Carew told the court through an interpreter. The Herald of the Sun reported.
He said the couple would argue over who was to blame for losing custody of their two children, who were placed in the care of Polianskaya’s mother after teachers at the school raised concerns about the couple’s excessive alcohol consumption. in early 2023.
Following a fight in April 2023 at her home in the picturesque village of La Turbie, near Monaco, Ms Polianskaya was rushed to hospital and placed in an induced coma, prompting police to arrest Carew and charge him. of attempted murder.
That charge was later reduced to repeated domestic violence towards his spouse, for which he was imprisoned for 12 months, however, the judge ordered him to serve house arrest, considering the 16 months that Carew spent in a cell awaiting trial.
Until his life began to fall apart in late 2021, Carew had been a successful real estate businessman and the couple had lived a life of luxury in Dubai and France after meeting on a beach in Monaco in 2011.
Damien Carew from Melbourne was jailed for repeatedly hitting his wife Anna Polianskaya (pictured together)
Carew called emergency services after an incident involving his wife in April 2023, local media reported. He is also separately involved in a money laundering investigation after he was found on a Paris street with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in his purse.
The court heard Carew’s property business was hit hard by the Covid pandemic.
Before that, they were living the good life in Dubai until they moved to Monaco in late 2014 to settle down.
“They lived in a huge villa in the Palm Islands,” a friend previously told Daily Mail Australia.
‘They were a very handsome couple, as you can see. They obviously had a very ostentatious life. They live in Monaco and have been to Dubai.
While in the United Arab Emirates, Ms Polianskaya-Carew worked for the American commercial real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle and her husband was involved in real estate and diamond trading.
‘They are very generous people, quite extravagant, but down to earth. They are so kind. It’s so sad. “My heart breaks for the children,” the friend said.
Damien Carew and Anna Polianskaya lived for several years in the United Arab Emirates, where they had a ‘huge’ house in the exclusive Palm Islands (above)
A friend of the couple said Carew had struggled since leaving prison and returning to Russian-born Ms Polianskaya (above).
In October 2021, Carew was allegedly found by firefighters intoxicated on a Paris street with almost 200,000 euros in cash, the equivalent of $335,000, inside a normal-looking bag.
Police were called, and they allegedly found another 160,000 euros ($268,000) in cash after searching an apartment in northern Paris where he was staying. He allegedly handled around €4 million ($6.7 million) through his accounts or in cash.
Carew was charged with aggravated money laundering and conspiracy to commit a crime punishable by 10 years in prison.
His defense lawyer claims he was a low-level collector in the international network and was simply asked to deliver cash to people in Paris hotels.
Carew spent a year in detention before being released on bail and returning to his home in La Turbie, where Ms Polianskaya and her two children, a girl born in 2017 and a boy born in 2019, were.
“I understand that having three dogs and two children is a lot after being in prison, but it is no excuse (for violence),” Polianskaya told the court through an interpreter.
The couple and their two children lived in a rented villa in La Turbie (above), near the wealthy city-state of Monaco. Carew has moved to Antibes and the children live with Polianskaya’s mother.
A medical examination when Ms Polianskaya was admitted to hospital in April 2023 found multiple bruises on her eye sockets, chin, abdomen, arms, legs and back.
He also suffered damage to his shoulder blade and pelvis, as well as a brain injury when he hit his head on the bathtub.
Carew admitted hitting her on multiple occasions, but claimed she bruised easily because she was anemic and often fell when she drank, which Polianskaya denied.
At the half-day trial, Carew was also ordered to pay Polianskaya €30,000 ($A48,698) in damages, subject to review at a later date, and must not contact her for three years.
The money laundering investigation continues and Carew cannot leave the country until it is completed.