By Eimear Dodd
A woman with over 200 previous convictions who sent threatening messages to a witness in an upcoming Circuit Court trial has been jailed for 21 months.
Sinead White (38) of Collins Place, Finglas, Dublin 11 pleaded guilty to witness intimidation on September 1, 2023.
She has 210 previous convictions, 158 of which are for theft. White is currently serving a sentence on other matters.
Imposing sentence today, Judge Martin Nolan said this would have been intimidating and frightening for the injured party, and that it occurred against a serious background.
He said the court accepted White is “probably not an insidious person”, but made “insidious threats” to the victim, which had a serious impact on her.
The judge noted White was intoxicated at the time, but he said she “knew what she was doing was wrong”.
He said the offence was serious and a person “can’t intimidate witnesses and not go to prison”.
Having considered the mitigation, Judge Nolan imposed a 21-month prison sentence, with credit for any time served in custody on this matter only.
“If she was an insidious person capable of carrying out those threats, the sentence would be higher,” Judge Nolan said, adding that the court had concluded that White was not this type of person.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that White left the injured party two voices messages on Facebook on September 1, 2023 in which she used threatening language. These messages were played to the court. In one of the messages, a co-accused, who is also before the courts, spoke while White made a threatening comment.
The injured party is expected to be a witness in a trial before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, which is scheduled to take place in 2025, the court was told today.
After arrest, White became unwell and was taken to hospital, before she was deemed fit for interview.
She was co-operative during interview and accepted she sent the voice messages but couldn’t recall what she said. White agreed with gardai that the messages were threatening, intimidating and wrong.
White was apologetic and said she didn’t mean it.
A victim impact statement was handed to the court. Aideen Collard BL, prosecuting, told the court that the injured party had given birth a few weeks prior to this incident, which had caused hurt and sadness at a point which should have been a happy time in her life.
The investigating garda agreed with Aoife O’Leary BL, defending, that her client was co-operative, but could not recall her behaviour as she was taking heroin and crack cocaine at the time.
It was accepted that White was apologetic, and there has been no contact since between her and the injured party.
The garda also agreed that White has no history of violence or previous convictions for assault.
The court heard this is White’s first time before the Circuit Court.
Ms O’Leary told the court her client is remorseful for her actions and accepts it would have been a serious and frightening experience for the injured party.
Counsel asked the court to take into account that her client didn’t tell the injured party not to give evidence or make threats to her place of residence.
She said these “unpleasant” threats were made while White was intoxicated and were not “cold and calculating”.
Her client is engaging with all relevant services and supports while in custody.