A terminally-ill man who made thousands of nuisance phone calls to the emergency services has been jailed for one year.
Derek Guildea (61) made a total of 4,819 phone calls to emergency services, with the volume of calls and ambulances sent out to him impacting the service's ability to respond to genuine calls, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Guildea, of Trimbleston, Hamlet Lane, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to three counts of persistently making telephone calls for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety on dates between January 2021 and October 2022.
The court heard the calls were made to the Garda emergency control room, the National Ambulance Centre emergency control room and the 999 emergency call answering service during this period.
He also made a threat during a menacing phone call to a paramedic that he would “have him killed stone dead” and told another emergency service call taker that he would have his kids killed.
Judge Pauline Codd said that by his actions, Guildea created a situation whereby ambulances and fire brigades were misdirected to him.
The sheer volume had an impact on the services and an impact on the delivery of care to other persons who were in need at the time.
She noted he made threats to emergency services personnel and an “extraordinary number of people were affected by his conduct”.
“The sheer volume had an impact on the services and an impact on the delivery of care to other persons who were in need at the time,” the judge said.
She added the most aggravating factor in the case was the duration of the offending conduct and the extraordinary extent of phone calls made by Guildea.
The judge referred to one of the victims in the case, a Dublin Fire Brigade worker, who said he was fearful for himself and his family in the wake of Guildea’s calls.
The judge handed down a sentence of two and a half years. She suspended the final 18 months on a number of conditions, including that Guildea desist from contacting emergency services unless in the event of a genuine need and then through a third party.
She said he would have received a longer sentence but for the fact he is terminally ill. She backdated the sentence to when he went into custody last October.
Detective Garda Ross Rowan told Fiona Crawford BL, prosecuting, that Guildea made 437 to the emergency control room at the garda communication centre, 756 calls to emergency control room at the National Ambulance Service and 3,623 calls to 999.
In one call answered by a paramedic working as a call taker at the Dublin Fire Brigade headquarters, Guildea was roaring and shouting down the phone, the court heard.
Guildea threatened to blow the man’s head off and in a later call to “get him killed stone dead”. This left the man in fear for his safety.
In another menacing call, Guildea told a call taker on an emergency line that he would kill his kids.
Knock-on effect
The National Ambulance Service reported that Guildea’s calls were a constant, almost daily, problem during the period.
It caused a knock-on effect for appropriate staffing level in the control room, the court was told, and the sheer volume of calls impacted on emergency and patient care.
In some calls, Guildea would complain of chest pain and shortness of breath so there was an obligation on the service to dispatch an ambulance, but most times there was nothing physically wrong with him. This impacted the response to genuine call in the community, the court heard.
The court heard that even through Guildea was known for regularly making false calls, the emergency services could not ignore his call if they were told there was a medical issue.
Gardaí spoke to Guildea, and the calls would reduce from time to time, but always resumed.
Guildea, who has 18 previous convictions, told gardaí during interview he was a “bit surprised” when the volume of calls was put to him and later said he was ashamed.
He said the calls occurred when he was drunk and he told gardai he had been diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2008.
The garda agreed with defence counsel that alcohol was a core issue, central to Guildea’s deterioration and offending.
The court also heard Guildea told gardaí he did not wish to hurt anyone and described being lonely.
Paddy Jackson BL, defending, said his client had lung cancer and had been very unwell for a sustained period of time. He also had a deep sense of loneliness and alcohol became an issue.
He said Guildea had been in the army and served his country on peace-keeping missions.
Counsel submitted his guilty pleas saved important witnesses coming to court and were of significant benefit.
