By Isabel Hayes
A former soldier who harassed a vulnerable woman who had just emerged from an abusive marriage during which she was repeatedly raped has been given a three-year suspended sentence.
The 60-year-old Dublin man was acting like a “lovesick teenager” according to his defence counsel when he repeatedly followed the woman to her home, the local shops and park and her children’s schools among other places, during a five month period in 2021.
The woman was in a “very vulnerable position” at the time, having ended a 20-year marriage during which she was repeatedly raped, the Central Criminal Court heard.
In her victim impact statement she told the court that having to deal with criminal behaviour from more than one man was more than she could bear.
The man, who can’t be named to protect the anonymity of the woman, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of harassing her between February and July 2021.
It is an offence that carries a maximum sentence of seven years.
Sentencing him today, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon said the man’s behaviour was “persistent, threatening and frightening”.
She said he would have had some awareness of the woman’s past, and she was at times physically and emotionally upset in his presence, but “this did not deter him”.
She set a headline sentence of five years before taking mitigating factors into account, including the man’s guilty plea which avoided the woman having to go through the trial process, his good work history and the fact he has not re-offended or gone near the woman in five years.
He has no previous convictions.
She sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment but suspended it on a number of conditions. She ordered him to stay away from the woman for a period of five years.
The court heard that after the woman ended her marriage in 2018, she tried to rebuild her life and find a new home for herself and her children, a local detective garda told Anne Rowland SC, prosecuting.
Her husband was jailed for nine-and-a-half years in 2023 for five counts of raping her on dates between 2006 and 2018.
She met the defendant in December 2019 and they began a relationship.
The man told her his marriage had ended, although he was still living with his wife.
From March to August 2020 they did not see each other due to the Covid lockdown, but communicated via phone and the woman, who was the only adult in her household, felt supported by the man.
He helped her to secure a lease on a house near him in 2020 and later that year, he left his family home and moved in with his sister.
He became increasingly demanding of the woman, calling her crying and insisting she visit him on Christmas Day.
They started arguing a lot and in January 2021 the woman said she wanted a break.
The man starting inundating the woman with messages declaring his love for her, started driving by her house and parking nearby.
He regularly followed her when she was grocery shopping in a local supermarket.
On one occasion he followed her when she was dropping the children to their father across the city and started banging on her car, saying that life wasn’t worth living without her.
He held out his arms as if he was on a crucifix and told her she might as well run over him and that he had left his wife for her.
The woman was extremely stressed and panic-stricken by this incident and gardai became involved, the court heard.
The man told gardai he was upset that the woman wanted a break. When asked if she wanted to make a complaint, the woman declined.
There was a brief rapprochement for a period, but during this time, the man would get upset if the woman left her house, such as to pick up groceries, without telling him so they could meet up.
He again started bombarding her with texts and threatened suicide.
He pressured her for physical affection and one day gave her a beer, referring to it as a “leg opener”.
This was deeply upsetting for the woman as a victim of sexual violence and she walked off on the man who then followed her in his car.
She agreed to get into the car briefly before he threatened to drive it into a wall.
She was sobbing and hysterical after this incident, the court heard.
Over the following months, the man continued to follow the women to various places including her children’s school, the post office and local Intreo centre.
She was having a counselling session in her car one day when he appeared in the car park, the court heard.
He regularly came into her housing estate and would park his car nearby, the court heard.
In her victim impact statement, which she gave from behind a screen so she did not have to see the defendant in the dock, the woman said the fact the man was a former soldier made her feel safe around him, especially given her past experience.
As a result of the harassment, she said she no longer feels safe at night and feels a deep sense of grief.
She said she has a constant fear of being watched and has panic attacks.
“I’m exhausted from living in fear,” she said. “It is no way to live.”
She listed the places the man followed her to including her home, her children’s school, the local park, when she was driving her children to access visits, her workplace, local shops, the post office, the local welfare office and when she was walking her dog.
“He harassed me relentlessly,” she said.
“So much of my time was taken up by the selfish actions of (this man).”
She said the man chose to harass her when she was already struggling with the effects of the abusive behaviour by her ex-husband, to the point it felt like he walked in where her ex had “left off”.
“Having to deal with this type of criminal behaviour from one man was more than I could bear,” she said.
Defence counsel, Alexander White SC, said the man was acting out of character at the time of his offending and was behaving like a “lovesick teenager”.
He said he was going through a difficult period with the covid lockdown and breakdown of his marriage.
He is now in a new relationship.
He has a good work history including his period in the defence forces and has worked all his life.
He wished to apologise to the woman, the court heard.