A MAN accused of threatening to kill his ex-partner’s present partner while holding a knife to his face denied the charges and said he spoke “nice and politely to him” and only had a phone in his hand.

A jury deliberated for approximately two hours yesterday before returning a unanimous not guilty verdict in the case against Jason Hayes of Castleview, Little Island, County Cork, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Hayes, who is aged around 30, denied the charges arising out of the disputed incident, namely trespassing at the house and carrying a knife. He was found not guilty on both counts.

Hayes told gardaí that he only said to the other man, “I would see him another day” and said this, “not in a threat, but nice and politely.” In the course of the trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Laura Hennessy testified that her ex-partner, Jason Hayes, called to her home at Tuairín Alainn in Castlemartyr, County Cork, and threatened her partner Noel Geary with a knife.

Ms Hennessy testified that she had texted Jason Hayes during the week and phoned him that morning telling him not to come to her house in relation a domestic matter.

She said he arrived at the house at 10.45 p.m. that night and came in by the back door which happened to be unlocked.

“Noel was with me on the stairs. He (Hayes) had a grey Stanley knife. The handle was silvery dark in colour. The blade was sticking out.

“He approached Noel a couple of times. He came right up to his body. We heard him say, ‘I am going to kill you. I am going to get you’,” Ms Hennessy said.

John Devlin, defence barrister, said the accused did say, ‘I am going to see you again’ and that he said that out of frustration in relation to a domestic matter that was ongoing.

Mr Devlin also said the only thing Jason Hayes had in his hand was a mobile phone and that no threats of any kind were made to Mr Geary.

Mr Geary testified that the defendant’s behaviour went from zero to sixty that night. He said he was 100 per cent sure that the accused was carrying a Stanley knife.

“He had the knife in front of my face telling me he was going to kill me. He had the knife to my neck telling he was going to kill me and he held the knife to my stomach,” Mr Geary said.

While Jason Hayes was cleared on the charges on which he was put on trial, he had previously pleaded guilty to another incident where he obstructed gardaí dealing with him during another incident at Little Island.

Detective Garda Michael Crowley told him he would be taken to Cobh garda station and not Midleton garda station and that Hayes insisted he wanted to be taken to Midleton. He became obstructive and had to be pepper-sprayed.

Hayes is presently serving a three-year sentence for drug-dealing.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin sentenced him to four months in prison on the obstruction charge and said, “He is kind of an intense kind of youngfella.”