A 43-year-old man who attacked and threatened to “slice up” a woman he had met on Facebook has been sentenced to three years in jail, with the final six months suspended.
Neilus Cooney of Strand Street, Tralee, Co Kerry, also threatened to kill two gardaí who came to the woman’s assistance after she managed to flee her apartment and phone for help, a court has heard.
Cooney was wielding two scissors while he threatened a sergeant from the emergency response unit, who arrived after the first garda on the scene requested armed backup.
Passing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, Judge Orla Crowe set a headline sentence of four years for what she described as a “completely unprovoked, sustained attack” on a woman in her own home.
“This was a man she thought she could trust. These were gardaí who were responding to an emergency call in the course of their duties,” said Judge Crowe.
The judge said a “chilling feature” of Cooney’s “extraordinarily threatening behaviour” was that his threats to cut up and slice the victims were credible because he was wielding scissors at the time.
Cooney also threatened to “put a bullet” in a sergeant, while pretending to hide a firearm behind his back, the court heard.
Judge Crowe took into account mitigating factors, including Cooney’s significant medical issues, his remorse and his early plea. She sentenced him to three years in prison with the final six months suspended.
She ordered that Cooney keep the peace and undergo probation supervision for one year on his release and attend such addiction services as prescribed by probation.
Cooney pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman, causing her harm and also threatening to kill her at her apartment in Grattan Wood, Balbriggan, Dublin 13 on August 9th, 2022. He further admitted threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Garda Patrick Griffin on the same occasion.
Three other counts were taken into consideration, including threatening to kill Sergeant Christopher O’Shaughnessy, producing an article and causing criminal damage to her phone.
Gda Griffin told the court that Cooney and the victim had met on Facebook six months previously and had met in person three or four times since then.
On the day in question, Cooney travelled by train from Tralee and met the victim at Heuston Station.
The woman introduced him to some of her female friends, and they went to one of her friend’s houses, where a male friend arrived and greeted the woman with a hug and a kiss.
This irritated Cooney, the court heard, who said if the woman was in Kerry, “She wouldn’t get away with that behaviour.”
The woman went with Cooney and another friend back to her apartment in Balgriffin, where Cooney and the friend began taking the victim’s prescription medication, the court heard.
The woman had a “bad feeling”, and after she asked her friend to leave, Cooney started behaving erratically and jumping over and back on her ground-floor balcony.
The woman started to text her brother, who lived abroad, and Cooney started shouting at her, “I’m telling you now, if you were down in Kerry, you would be shot by now.”
Cooney then threatened to “slice her throat and cut her to pieces”.
“Do you know who you’re dealing with? Look me up on the internet,” Cooney said, before slapping the woman with an open hand on her face.
He then played down the slap and said he had just tapped her. “If I gave you a proper slap, your teeth would be all over the floor,” said Cooney, before again threatening to slice her up.
The woman was scared and asked him again to leave, but he refused and said he had travelled over 300 miles to see her.
“Do you want to see what a real smack is?” Cooney said before punching the woman with a closed fist.
He then started shouting that he was going to kill her, and the woman said at that moment, she believed that he was.
Cooney stood over her as he punched her repeatedly in the face, before taking her phone and putting it in a basin of water so that it wouldn’t work. Cooney then began to apologise, and the woman said she needed to go to the shop and buy cigarettes. She ran out of the apartment and into some neighbours’ houses, one of whom noticed a swelling over her eye.
The woman rang the gardaí, and Gda Griffin arrived and told Cooney he was going to arrest him for assault causing harm.
Gda Griffin told George Burns BL, prosecuting, that Cooney was highly aggressive. He produced two pairs of scissors from his pocket and continued threatening to kill Gda Griffin, who called for armed backup from the Emergency Response Unit.
When Sergeant O’Shaughnessy arrived, Cooney said he had a firearm in the house. He then went into the house and came back with his hand behind his back.
After half an hour, Cooney made his hands visible to show that he didn’t have a gun and was arrested. Cooney has 39 previous convictions, of which eight were in the Circuit Court, including two assault charges. Other previous offences included robbery, theft, misuse of drugs and criminal damage.
Gda Griffin agreed with Pieter Le Vert BL, defending, that Cooney was unfit for interview for six hours as he was highly intoxicated.
Gda Griffin also agreed that Cooney was a very different person from the man he had arrested on the day. The court heard that Cooney had suffered extreme anxiety and depression since the age of 16 and abused alcohol and benzodiazepines as a means of coping.
Cooney told gardaí he was an alcoholic and didn’t remember certain aspects of the day, but that he did have a vivid memory of the scissors. He said he was sorry and, that he had been “out of control”, and that he should not drink.
A medical report submitted to the court gave details of Cooney’s other conditions, including agoraphobia and PTSD. The court heard Cooney completed a residential treatment programme for alcohol addiction in 2019 but relapsed afterwards into drink and benzos.
Mr Le Vert said Cooney was “disgusted and regretful” for what he did and expressed apologies to the victim and the gardaí. The court heard Cooney has not had access to his medication while in custody and has put himself on protection, meaning he is in his cell for 23 hours a day and not allowed visitors.
