Suspended sentence for man who threatened to kick ex-wife to death

A 10-MONTH suspended jail term was imposed on a middle-aged man who was convicted of threatening to kick his ex-wife to death or get others to do it, putting her in fear.

Judge Olann Kelleher had put sentencing back for three months to see how the defendant would behave in the meantime. He was told at Cork District Court that there had been no further issues.

Judge Kelleher then imposed the 10-month sentence, suspended on condition that the accused committed no further offences in the next two years.

“You will do the 10 months if you are convicted of anything in the meantime,” Judge Kelleher warned.

At the sentencing, the accused man’s solicitor, Frank Buttimer, said: “They [the facts of the case] are absolutely disputed, but you found him guilty.”

The complainant testified that her ex-husband also threatened to tell people that she was “up and down with other women’s husbands” and that this upset her greatly.

She said that her ex-partner, more than anyone, knew that this was untrue and that such a thing would upset her.

She added that “he knew what buttons to push”.

“I have dash-cams in my car and I have security cameras in my house and you are asking am I afraid of him,” she said when cross-examined by Mr Buttimer at an in-camera hearing in Cork District Court.

The accused man, who is in his 50s, denied a charge of breaching a barring order on September 23, 2019, by putting her in fear during the course of a phone call. However, he was convicted after a trial at the in-camera hearing.

The injured party said: “All I wanted was peace and I am still not getting peace.

“I am watching my back the whole time. This is going on for two years and I am fearful all the time.”

Mr Buttimer asked her why, if she was in such fear, she was the one who rang him on that day. She said it was to ask him about maintenance payments in respect of their children.

Judge Kelleher said: “If she has an order for maintenance and she was short of money, any woman in Ireland would take a chance and ring for maintenance.”

The defendant said: “She has no reason to be in fear of me. That girl [his ex-wife] passes me every day in her car. It don’t look to me that she is in fear. She ain’t in fear of me and that is a fact.”