A woman who was harassed by a former garda has said she was “met with silence” after reporting his behaviour to GSOC, reports Breaking News.
Paul Moody, 46, formerly of St Raphaels Manor in Celbridge, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty to harassment and coercive control involving his former partner, reports Breaking News.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the offences took place between March 2016 and November 2017.
A further charge of demanding money with menace was also taken into consideration by the court, reports Breaking News.
The court heard Moody’s abusive conduct continued while the woman was pregnant, during her hospital stay and after the birth of their child. Their relationship ended in early 2017.
Moody had previously been jailed in 2022 for three years and three months after pleading guilty to coercion involving another woman, Nicola Hanney, reports Breaking News.
At that hearing, the court was told he had carried out a four-year campaign of harassment, threats, assaults and coercive control against Ms Hanney.
The woman in the current case said: “If someone had listened in 2017, Nicola would have been spared”, reports Breaking News.
Moody joined An Garda Síochána in 2000 and served for 21 years before being suspended.
The woman first contacted GSOC in December 2017 and later provided a statement in March 2018, along with extensive supporting material, reports Breaking News.
She said she received no updates until October 2020, when she was informed Moody had been invited for interview months earlier but did not attend due to work-related stress leave.
Letters relating to her GSOC complaint were later discovered during searches connected to the investigation into Moody’s conduct towards Nicola Hanney, reports Breaking News.
Detective Sergeant Maria Cassells of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation said this was the first occasion investigators became aware of the woman’s allegations.
In late 2022, the woman asked the NBCI to take over her complaint.
In her victim impact statement, she said she was not free after the relationship ended and felt “met with silence” after approaching GSOC, reports Breaking News.
She said she experienced “profound anger” knowing Moody continued serving as a garda while allegedly being abusive in private.
The woman described a welfare call from GSOC on the day Moody was sentenced in 2022 as being “like a sledgehammer”, reports Breaking News.
She said the “neglect” of her complaint prolonged her trauma and made it feel as though Moody’s control over her had continued.
The woman said she had been “profoundly let down”, though she praised the NBCI for restoring “some of my faith”, reports Breaking News.
She said Moody had taken “far more than years”, including “trust, peace and part of who I was”.
She added that she hoped accountability in the case would send a message “that this will not be tolerated”, reports Breaking News.
In the statement read to the court, she said she had been “subjected to a level of abuse which altered the course of my life” during the relationship.
She said she had trusted Moody completely and that “he used the uniform to present himself as a good person”, reports Breaking News.
“He didn’t need to hit me to cause harm”, she said, adding that the psychological abuse and threats were relentless, reports Breaking News.
The woman said Moody had even suggested a safe word to stop arguments escalating but ignored it when she repeatedly used it.
She also described one incident where Moody allegedly destroyed a nursery before pacing with a knife “like a man possessed”, reports Breaking News.
She said he taunted her and attempted to intimidate friends who arrived to help her by using his position as a garda.
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“They came in anyway. I believe that intervention saved us that day”, she said, reports Breaking News.
Judge Martin Nolan described the offending as “prolonged” and “extreme” during sentencing.
He said the harassment and abuse were “extremely personal, insulting and very undermining”, reports Breaking News.
The judge noted Moody had already been sentenced in 2022 for similar offences and said the court had to consider what a combined sentence would have been if all matters had been dealt with together.
Taking into account Moody’s guilty plea and mitigating factors, Judge Nolan imposed a six-year sentence with the final 15 months suspended on strict conditions, reports Breaking News.
He said the overall sentence for all offending would likely have been in the region of eight years.
The judge also ordered that Moody have no contact with the woman, her family or friends for 20 years, with the sentence backdated to December 2024, reports Breaking News.
The court heard Moody and the woman first met in 2015, when he was still married, though he told her his wife had moved out.
Evidence was given that their relationship involved frequent arguments, often focused on the woman’s previous relationships, reports Breaking News.
During a trip abroad, Moody took intimate photographs of the woman which she later asked him to delete.
The woman told the court she frequently felt responsible for problems in the relationship and believed Moody was always right, reports Breaking News.
The couple at one point lived together in Celbridge after initially staying with the woman’s mother.
While pregnant and in hospital, the woman received more than 2,200 WhatsApp and text messages from Moody between March 2 and March 8, 2016, reports Breaking News.
Another patient reportedly alerted nurses after Moody was heard whispering aggressively in the woman’s ear.
After he was asked to leave the hospital, the woman told staff he continued calling and texting her constantly, leading to him being barred from visiting, reports Breaking News.
The court heard Moody complained he was alone and upset that nobody was available to buy him a birthday cake.
Messages sent by Moody included: “Do us all a favour, let nature take its course”, as well as “I hope you bleed out and die you cunt” and “I hope you lose [the baby] and die in the process for your lies and carry on”, reports Breaking News.
The relationship briefly improved before deteriorating again.
In August 2016, Moody became angry after discovering messages between the woman and a male friend, reports Breaking News.
Later, after the woman moved out, Moody bombarded her with abusive communications and retained some of her belongings, including her passport.
He repeatedly attempted reconciliation, sending emotional videos discussing his mental health struggles, reports Breaking News.
The woman even accompanied Moody to a doctor, where he declined hospital treatment for his mental health difficulties.
The court heard Moody also interfered with her plans to travel to the United States by emailing American authorities, reports Breaking News.
In February 2017, Moody referred to the woman as “a bit on the side, a dirty secret”.
She ended the relationship the following day, but Moody continued contacting her, reports Breaking News.
He later created fake social media accounts, including one impersonating her ex-husband, which was allegedly used to send around 760 friend requests to people she knew.
The coercion charge related to threats made after the woman blocked Moody from contacting her, reports Breaking News.
He warned she would regret blocking him and threatened to distribute intimate images to her former husband and employer.
The court also heard Moody demanded money from the woman relating to rent he believed she owed while they lived together, reports Breaking News.
Defence counsel Michael Bowman SC said Moody has remained in custody and has had no contact with the woman since.
A probation report assessed him as being at high risk of reoffending without further offence-focused treatment, reports Breaking News.
The court also heard Moody experienced significant mental health difficulties and spent time in hospital following a breakdown in 2021, reports Breaking News.
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