A court heard that a man threatened to kill his ex-partner, burn down her house and “dance” in her face over access to their young daughter.
The 27-year-old Dubliner, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at the Criminal Circuit Court in Dublin to threatening to kill the woman, damaging her home, molesting her and breaching a court order families overcome by repeatedly contacting her, reports Breaking News.
The crimes took place between June and July 2022. The man continues to have supervised access to his daughter; The court heard on Friday.
A local Garda told prosecutor Rónán Prendergast BL that the man and woman had been in a relationship for about a year and had a child together.
A custody order issued for the child gave the mother sole custody and ruled that she could make decisions about the father’s contact rights, reports Breaking News.
In June 2022, the woman’s husband sent several emails asking her to see his daughter. He called the woman a “selfish c++t”, told her she looked like an “ex-junkie” and said if he couldn’t find the child he would “ance all over (her) face”, reports Breaking News.
“Unblock me, or I’m going to kick the f**k out of you,” the man wrote in one email, reports Breaking News.
In another, he wrote: “If you don’t organise something, I will burn your f**king house down”. In relation to the woman blocking his emails, he wrote: “I’m leaving you in hospital on my way to work if you don’t unblock me. Do you really want me to have to do that?” reports Breaking News.
The woman reported the harassment to GardaĂ and the man was arrested and charged, the court heard.
During the following month, while the man was on bail for the crime, he sent a series of WhatsApp messages to the woman, violating a protection order that had been issued.
The court heard that he now makes regular supervised visits with his child to a play center in the presence of the woman’s mother.
He is forbidden to have any contact with the woman, except for matters of contact with the child.
Anne Rowland SC, defending the man, told the court that he was “desperately anxious about not seeing his daughter” at the time of the offence, reports Breaking News.
She said things had been “settled” between the two parties in recent months, with the man paying as much child support to his daughter as he could.
He currently works as a delivery driver.
The court heard that the man had two previous convictions for assault, dating back to 2017 when he was 19.
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