Suspended sentence for man who threatened to kill partner

By Niamh O’Donoghue

A man has been handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence for making threats to kill a woman he had been in a relationship with.

The 19-year-old man was acquitted of rape following a trial at the Central Criminal Court earlier this year, but convicted of a count of making a threat to kill or cause serious harm on a date in August 2021.

The man cannot be named because a person acquitted of rape retains their right to anonymity for  life under the Criminal Law (Rape) Act 1981.

Imposing sentence, Mr Justice Paul Burns said the man’s actions had caused the woman “significant fear”.

He said he would set a headline sentence of two years for an adult, which he reduced to 12 months to reflect that the man was 16 at the time of this offence. 

Having considered the mitigation, the judge suspended the 12-month sentence for three years under strict conditions and directed the man to place himself under the supervision of the Probation Services.

 Addressing the woman, Mr Justice Burns said the court could only pass sentence in respect of the count where a guilty verdict was returned and could not take into account any other alleged offending.

He wished her well for the future and expressed the hope that she would continue to experience significant improvement with the support of her family and friends.

Evidence was previously heard that the threats were made to a third party through Instagram messaging. The man was in a relationship with the injured party but they had since separated.

Throughout their relationship, the man would do things to isolate her and he would message her through a number of different accounts on Instagram, threatening her, after they broke up. The court heard he has no previous convictions.

The relationship had ended a number of months earlier and he was 16 at the commission of the offence, his counsel told the court said. 

In a victim impact statement read to the court during a previous hearing, the woman said she felt so scared, she would become ill and described being isolated from her family.

Defence counsel told the court: “he [the man] accepts the verdict of the jury and has instructed me to offer and apology…he understands the apology may not be accepted”. 

Counsel asked the judge to take cognisance of fact the offence took place when he was 16 and that he was at low risk of reoffending and come to court as a first-time offender.  He asked the court to deal with it in a non-custodial way citing his client’s lack of previous convictions and to offer hope of rehabilitation.