Woman allegedly sent image of her pointing firearm at camera to ex-partner

A 35-year-old woman faces charges of putting her ex-partner in fear on a number of occasions, including one day when she allegedly sent him over 200 texts, voice messages and pictures.

One photograph referred to on the charge allegedly shows the accused woman pointing an apparent firearm at the camera, thereby putting her ex-partner in fear.

The accused appeared at Cork District Court by video link from prison as she was previously remanded in custody on the Domestic Violence Act charges.

Diarmuid Kelleher, solicitor, said the accused previously indicated she was pleading guilty to the charges but then changed her plea and said in court, just before Christmas, that she was pleading not guilty.

Judge Mary Dorgan addressed the accused at the in-camera hearing of the court yesterday where the parties cannot be identified because of the nature of the case: “Are you pleading not guilty?” The accused replied: “Of course, not guilty.”

Mr Kelleher said that in taking instructions from the defendant there were times when she had “lucid intervals” but that there were other occasions when she was not lucid. Judge Dorgan previously requested a psychiatric report to be prepared on the accused in prison. Such a report was not available to the court yesterday.

The judge remanded the accused in continuing custody until January 9 for the purpose of having a psychiatric report prepared. Judge Dorgan asked her registrar to write to the prison governor indicating that all appropriate pressure should be brought to bear to have such a report prepared. “It is outstanding for quite some time,” Judge Dorgan added.

The domestic charges were brought against the woman by Garda Eoghan O’Mahony following complaints from her ex-partner. One charge states that on October 20 2023 the accused sent her ex-partner over 80 text messages in a short period of time, in contravention of a protection order.

A second states that on November 2 2023 she contravened this order by allegedly sending him over 200 text, voice and picture messages over a short period, including the picture of her allegedly pointing an apparent firearm at the camera.

The third alleged breach refers to an incident the following day at a fast food outlet in Cork. It states that she approached him, put her arms around him, kissed the back of his head and followed him a distance as he attempted to get away from her.