Social worker threatened by man saying: ‘I’m going to end your life’

THE social worker who was threatened by a man with the words, “I’m going to end your life”, does not want to meet him as part of a proposed restorative justice programme.

The social worker also indicated that she did not want to receive compensation from the man and said that if he wanted to gather money he should give it to Cork Penny Dinners or Cork Simon Community.

Judge Mary Dorgan said on Wednesday at Cork District Court that she totally understood the victim’s attitude.

The judge was glad to see that the process would continue with a restorative conference whereby the accused could work with the probation service to reflect on his offending and the effect it had on the social worker.

Defence solicitor Daithí Ó Donnabháin said the defendant repeated his expression of apology and remorse and fully accepted that he was wrong.

Judge Dorgan noted from a probation report that the defendant’s remorse and victim empathy appeared to be genuine.

Judge Dorgan said she would sentence him on July 24 and said it was essential that he continue with the process through probation.

Detective Garda Dave Barry investigated the case where the accused man pleaded guilty to making the death threats.

Victim impact statement 

In her victim impact statement, the social worker said: “When your life is threatened, it shakes you to your core, anxiously thinking if I was gone, who would care for my children because these are real moments of taking stock because the reality is one day a social worker will not return home as violence towards us and all working the frontline increases.”

Because of the possibility that identification of the parties would lead to identification of the defendant’s child in the court proceedings there is a prohibition on naming them.

The social worker said the man rang her in a rage and threatened to kill her because she had been involved in a court case which led to the young family member being taken into care.

“I froze with fear as each message played out. When you hear ‘I’m going to end your life’ several times, expressed with such anger, that there was a visceral response in my body, my stomach turned, and I froze — possibly an hour passed before I could go in home and greet my family.”

Charges 

He was charged with assaulting the woman at Washington Street Courthouse on April 3, 2023.

He was charged that on May 9, 2023, he made persistent phone calls to her without reasonable cause, and two counts that on May 9 he made a threat to the woman that he would kill her or cause serious harm.

The defendant first confronted the social worker outside Washington Street Courthouse and began waving his arms in her face in an angry manner on April 3, 2023, followed by the threatening calls a month later.

In the first message he called her a liar and said that he would “blow you up” while in the second message, he threatened he would “take your life” while in the third message, he said she had taken something from him and he was now “going to take something from you.”

In the fourth and final message that he left on the social worker’s phone, he threatened to kill her, saying that “you can do what you want, you can record it, you shit, but I’m telling you, I am going to take your life”.

Defence solicitor, Daithi Ó Donnabháin said that his client had indicated within a fortnight of being charged that he would be pleading guilty and with assistance because he wasn’t hugely literate, had written a letter of apology to the social worker for the ordeal he had put her through.