A transgender woman wanted to “torture” and “electrocute” the genitals of a female prisoner at Limerick Prison using an “electric rod”, a trial was told.
Barbie Kardashian told Limerick Circuit Criminal Court that while she was a prisoner at the jail she threatened to rape a female prisoner and sexually assault a female prison officer at Limerick Prison.
Kardashian has denied one count of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Tegan McGhee, who was a prisoner at the jail on February 25th, 2023.
Kardashian, who the court heard was born a male named Gabriel Alejandro Gentile and who received a certificate from the State recognising her as a female, also denies two counts of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to female prison officer Roisin Linnane at the prison on June 9th and 11th, 2023.
The trial judge, Colin Daly, told the jury of seven women and five men to find Kardashian “not guilty” in respect of a third count of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Ms Linnane on April 25th, 2023.
The jury retired to consider its verdict on the remaining three counts after hearing closing speeches from the prosecution and the defence on Friday afternoon.
Kardashian told the court on Friday that she wanted to make Ms McGhee and Ms Linnane “suffer” because she was upset and angry that rumours were circulating about her leaving showers dirty on the women’s landing of the prison.
Kardashian claimed Ms Linnane had been “openly intimidating” her on the landing, which had earlier been denied by Ms Linnane in her direct evidence to the court.
Tegan McGhee had told the trial earlier this week that she had accused Kardashian of leaving the showers dirty.
Ms McGhee said she had the job of cleaning the showers, and she had to use “a hose” a number of times to remove “body hair” from the showers.
On Friday, under cross-examination by prosecuting counsel John O’Sullivan, Kardashian admitted she told Ms McGhee she was going to rape her with an object so that she would be so injured “so she would not be able to have children”.
Mr O’Sullivan asked Kardashian “what object” she was going to use to rape Ms McGhee.
“I wanted to use an electric rod, but that wasn’t available to me. I remember thinking I wanted to use the handle of a sweeping brush or a mop. I wanted to torture her [Ms McGhee] sexually, I wanted to sexually electrocute her genitalia,” replied Kardashian.
When asked why use an “object” to rape, Kardashian replied: “Because I am a woman, and women use objects, that’s why I said object.”
“I hate having male genitalia and I would use an object to commit rape. If a woman wants to rape, that’s how I would commit rape.”
When Mr O’Sullivan put it to Kardashian that the trial heard it was only females that the accused had threatened, Kardashian replied: “I have threatened to sexually assault males since these incidents.”
Kardashian agreed she “snapped” after rumours had circulated “for months” about her and the showers.
She said she threatened to rape Ms McGhee and “sexually assault” or “molest” Ms Linnane.
“I wanted to punish them for life for making false allegations about me... I wanted revenge,” Kardashian said.
Mr O’Sullivan asked Kardashian if she had told the court she wanted to punish the two alleged injured parties “for life”.
Kardashian replied: “Yes, for life”.
Mr O’Sullivan asked Kardashian if she wanted to inflict “life-changing injuries” on the two alleged victims.
“That’s correct,” Kardashian replied.
Mr O’Sullivan put it to Kardashian that “you claim to be a woman yourself” but that Kardashian wanted to make the women suffer sexually.
Kardashian replied: “Yes, I wanted to make them suffer.”
She agreed with Mr O’Sullivan that she wanted to “torture” the two alleged victims and that they had “deserved it”.
“Yes, but the electric rod wasn’t available to me,” Kardashian said.
“It applied more to Roisin [Linnane] as I hated her more than Tegan”.
She said she “wanted to make a very extreme threat” against Ms Linnane in order “to make her suffer”.
Kardashian agreed with Mr O’Sullivan that “to Tegan McGhee and Roisin Linnane, you are a male with male genitalia”.
Kardashian argued that she did not agree that she was male, but she agreed that “unfortunately” she had male genitalia.
Mr O’Sullivan asked Kardashian if using an object would make Ms McGhee “be injured to such an extent that she wouldn’t have more children?”
Kardashian replied: “Yes, that’s correct.”
Mr O’Sullivan put it to the accused that she intended Tegan McGhee to believe the rape threat was real.
“Yes, I wanted her to suffer. I felt she wronged me and I wanted revenge,” Kardashian replied.
“The threats of rape were made to Tegan, not to Roisin Linnane.”
Kardashian said, in respect of Ms Linnane: “I didn’t threaten rape, I threatened sexual assault.”
Kardashian agreed with Mr O’Sullivan that a threat of rape was “possibly the worst things to do to a woman”.
Kardashian said she “had wanted to use an object to rape” Ms Linnane but she did not believe this would be realistic.
She said she was locked in her cell for up to 22 hours a day and segregated from the prison population.
“I didn’t say that I wanted to rape her (Ms Linnane) with an implement. I wanted to use an object to rape her but that wouldn't have been realistic, so I said I wanted to grab her vagina, as that would have been realistic,” Kardashian said.
“I wanted [Ms Linnane] to suffer as a result of being molested.”
“What I said was, I was going to put my hands between her legs and grab her vagina.
“To molest [Ms Linnane] was a realistic threat and I wanted her to believe the threat.
“I remember saying to [Ms Linnane] that I was going to molest her and sexually assault her, like my other victims.”
Barbie Kardashian told senior counsel Andrew Sexton, defending, that she felt “sad, angry and disappointed” because rumours were circulating about her leaving the showers in the prison dirty.
Aiden O’Meara, a prison officer at Limerick Prison gave evidence earlier that he heard Kardashian threaten to “rape” and “kill” Ms McGhee.
“I have no doubt the threat was made with malice and forethought,” Mr O’Meara said.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help
