A man has been handed a prison sentence after he told a woman who had boiling water thrown over her during a two-day assault to drop the charges, or she would be murdered.
Lyndsey Byrne was scalded, beaten and tied up and her partner Emmet Black was assaulted by a number of men who came looking for drugs to their apartment at The Maltings, Watling St, Dublin 8, over the course of November 11th and 12th, 2021.
A week later, a different man who had not been involved in the attack, Eamon Savage (36), told Ms Byrne to lie to the judge and say she had thrown boiling water over herself.
Savage of Emmet Road, Inchicore, pleaded guilty to witness intimidation of Lyndsey Byrne at Merchants Quay, Dublin 8 on November 18th, 2021.
The court heard that Savage was part of a group who walked past Ms Byrne and that another man in the group said to her: “You have Fat Crack locked up,” Fat Crack being a nickname for Paul Clarke (29).
Savage told Ms Byrne that he had a message from one of Clarke’s associates who was looking for her everywhere and had been on the quays two or three times a day to try and find her.
“Everyone knows you have Fat Crack locked up,” Savage told Ms Byrne, adding that she was to drop the charges and say that she had lied.
Ms Byrne later reported to gardaí that Savage told her to tell the judge she was “off my head on drugs when it happened” and also to say that she had poured boiling water over herself.
Savage told Ms Byrne, “there’s 20K in it” for her if she made a statement to that effect, but that if she didn’t, she would be murdered.
Imposing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Orla Crowe said witness intimidation is “a direct attack on society” as it “seeks to undermine the orderly functioning of the justice system”.
She said it was an aggravating factor in this case that Savage had made “specific and detailed threats” against Ms Byrne, which caused her to fear for her life. Judge Crowe commended Ms Byrne for her courage in going to gardaí about the threats made to her by Savage.
She noted that the Probation Service deemed Savage to be at very high risk of re-offending and that he had a large number of previous convictions. Judge Crowe said Savage was not involved in the attack on Ms Byrne and was used as a “conduit to convey a message” to her.
Handing Savage a three-year prison sentence, Judge Crowe said she had considered the mitigation put before the court on behalf of Savage. She backdated the sentence to January 1st last and declined a defence application to suspend a portion of the prison sentence.
At a previous sentence hearing, Detective Garda Richard Pender told Garret Baker SC, prosecuting, that Savage was later arrested after he was identified on CCTV.
In a victim impact statement previously submitted to the court, Ms Byrne said: “Eamon tried to get me to change my statement. Initially this worked, as I felt Paul Clarke could get to me, even while he was in prison.” Ms Byrne said that with the support of gardaí, she was able to tell the truth of what was done to her.
Savage has 100 previous convictions including possession of knives, drugs, theft, production of articles, public order and failing to appear.
Detective Pender agreed with Michael Hourigan BL, defending, that Savage was someone who was “limited in his ability to say ‘no’ to certain individuals”.
Mr Hourigan said his client was in no way involved in the original assault on Ms Byrne and her partner, but had been directed by other people to make the threat.
“He was acting at the behest of others,” counsel said of Savage, adding that the accused felt bad for the injured party as he knew her when he was younger.
The court heard that Savage was homeless and had a drug addiction but was now trying to reduce his methadone intake. Savage suffered neglect in his childhood and witnessed domestic violence in the home from a very early age, the court heard, and was taken into care from the age of five to 16.
He started taking drugs at the age of 12 or 13. The court heard that Savage has been in custody on another matter since November 2021.
Earlier this year, Paul Clarke (29) of Clonard Rd, Dublin 12 was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to four years and three months in prison for his role in the attack.
Clarke was described in court as the “main man” in the assault; he had thrown a kettle of boiling water over Ms Byrne causing second-degree burns and had threatened to “skin her alive,” the court heard.
Co-accused Craig Kelly (38) of Dowland Rd, Walkinstown, was sentenced to five months in prison for his role in one of the attacks; while a third man, Josh Conlon (19) of Meath Place, Thomas Street, received a suspended sentence.
The court heard previously that the men called to the apartment looking for a box of cannabis that Mr Black was supposed to be holding, and when the drugs were not found, they ordered the couple to come up with the sum of €7,000.
