Updated: 4.45pm
A jury has found Barbie Kardashian (20) guilty of seven counts of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to her mother following a four-day trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
Kardashian had threatened to torture and murder her mother, the court heard.
After four hours of deliberation, a jury of six women and six men returned unanimous guilty verdicts in three of the seven counts, and majority guilty verdicts in the remaining four counts in respect of Kardashian’s mother.
The accused, of no fixed abode, had pleaded not guilty to a total of seven counts of threatening to kill her mother, Maria Luque, at Coovagh House, Limerick, on dates in 2020.
She was found not guilty by unanimous verdict of an additional four charges of threatening to kill social care worker, Michael Mannix, at Coovagh House, on dates in 2019 and 2020.
All of the alleged threats were made while Kardashian was residing at Coovagh House, one of three secure units in the State for children aged 11-17 with serious behavioural problems, by order of the High Court.
Torture
Kardashian’s barrister, Mark Nicholas SC, accepted that during a meeting to plan her release into the community as she had turned 18, Kardashian told staff at Coovagh House that she planned to travel to her mother’s house, overpower her, and torture her with a knife, a screwdriver, and boiling water.
In his closing speech last Friday, Mr Nicholas argued Kardashian’s alleged plan was “fantasy” and that her social care workers did not immediately alert gardaí about the alleged threats.
He said some witnesses who had been involved in his client’s care, including Mr Mannix, agreed under cross-examination that Kardashian had been diagnosed with “narcissistic personality disorder” and that she would engage in “shock behaviour” in order “to get attention”.
Mr Nicholas said his client had experienced a “horrible” life, and she had been in State care since she was 10-years-old.
He reiterated there had been an “absence of alarm” in Coovagh about Kardashians’ alleged threats, until, he said, it was time for her to be released into the community, almost two years after she made the first alleged threat to kill Mr Mannix in January 2019.
Judge Tom O’Donnell said it was a “very very unusual case” and that he had “concerns” Kardashian might, at some point, “be left to her own devices” after her sentence is served.
“I’d like the benefit of a probation report to give the court some insight into what the long-term situation might be for this young lady. I would like to see if the probation service would have any guidance for the court,” Judge O’Donnell said.
Mr Nicholas agreed with the judge and reiterated that Kardashian had “been in care since she was 10, with little worldly experience”.
The judge ordered a psychological assessment on Kardashian and a probation report, remanding her in custody for sentence on July 28th.
