A man who threatened to murder his former partner and sent her dozens of abusive and threatening messages has been jailed for 12 months for what a judge called his “reprehensible and vulgar” behaviour.
The 44-year-old Dublin man who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to two making a threat to kill or cause serious harm to his former partner in June 2019.
In a victim impact statement, the woman said the anxiety and fear she suffered because of the man was like “a living hell”.
He has 71 previous convictions for road traffic offences, stealing cars, theft and public order offences.
Passing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday, Judge Orla Crowe ordered the man to have no contact with the injured party for a period of 10 years and to stay away from her home, subject to Family Law requirements.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison with the final six months suspended and ordered to remain under the supervision of the probation services for 12 months on his release.
Judge Crowe said he had displayed “reprehensible behaviour” towards the mother of his child and had harassed her by sending her threatening, vulgar and abusive messages.
The judge said the offences had profoundly impacted the injured party and caused her great suffering, and had been very harmful to both her and her child.
Sergeant Austin Kelly told Monika Leech BL, prosecuting, that the woman first complained to gardaí on June 15th, 2019, after she arrived home from holiday to find that the man was taking their son from her father’s home, where the child had been staying while she was on holiday.
She saw him running up the road with the child and ran after him asking to bring the child back. She managed to get her child, but he shouted at her “I am going to f**ing murder you.” She told him that was going to get the gardaí and ran back to her home.
Arrest
The man was arrested the following week and during interview with gardaí he made admissions to the threats he made and acknowledged that he had sent his former partner abusive messages.
He claimed to gardaí that he would not have gone ahead with the threats as he was “not going to jail for her – she’s my kid’s Mam”.
Sgt Kelly confirmed that 55 messages sent to the injured party would be considered threatening or abusive.
A victim impact statement was read into the record in which the victim said she has since suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and has spent time in hospital for panic attacks. She is taking medication for anxiety and stress, the court heard.
The woman said she can no longer walk past the man’s home “for fear he will do something to me” and she has since left the company she had been working for because he was constantly texting her and ringing her, and she felt she had no option.
The woman described herself as being in “a living hell” and she was angry at herself for letting the behaviour go on for as long as it did.
“I tried to do it on my own but I was not strong enough. The abuse and mental torture went on within the relationship. It got to the stage that I couldn’t go to the shops and didn’t let my son out to play for fear he would be near him.”
She said the anxiety and fear will never leave her but she that is “happily married now” and working again. “I just need to move on now and never let another man do this to me,” she concluded.
Gerardine Small SC, defending, said her client is full remorseful and fully accepts that the messages he sent were “vile and disgusting and reflect extremely badly on him”. She said he accepts that while he describes them “as empty threats, the complainant may not have been aware of that”.
Ms Small said it is “a source of deep sadness” for her client that he is not in contact with his son. She said he struggled with a serious drug addiction which he has taken steps to address.
The man was ordered to engage with any offence-focused programmes as deemed suitable by the probation services.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact Women’s Aid (24-hour freephone helpline at 1800-341 900, email helpline@womensaid.ie) or Men’s Aid Ireland (confidential helpline at 01-554 3811, email hello@mensaid.ie) for support and information.
Safe Ireland also outlines a number of local services and helplines at safeireland.ie/get-help/where-to-find-help/. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.
