By Eimear Dodd
A man has been jailed for harassing his former partner by sending messages to their ten-year-old child’s phone and ordered not to contact her for 30 years.
The 31-year-old Dublin man pleaded guilty to harassment over a week-long period in September 2025. His 38 previous convictions include nine for breaching court orders in relation to the injured party, and others for theft, assault and criminal damage.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the man was also on bail at the time for breaching a court order not to contact the injured party. The man can’t be named to protect the injured party’s right to anonymity.
Imposing sentence, Martin Nolan said the man’s behaviour towards his former partner was “pretty disgraceful” and the messages read by the court were “pretty upsetting”.
The judge said the court considered it “greatly aggravating” that the man sent the messages to a phone belonging to the couple’s ten-year-old. He noted the man was given that phone number to “aid his contact with this child and he abused that situation”.
He also noted that the man “disregarded” court orders, was also “given chances and warned about his behaviour” and that this harassment is “a continuation of his previous behaviour”.
Having considered the man’s personal circumstance and guilty plea, Judge Nolan imposed a sentence of three and a half years.
He also ordered the man to have no contact with the woman for 30 years, except in relation to family law matters. Judge Nolan said the court could not make a no contact order for life, but that “hopefully things should have moved on” by 30 years’ time.
The judge told the man: “You got many chances. You abused those chances and made life miserable for your former partner and your child”.
The investigating garda told Tessa White BL, prosecuting, that the man and the woman’s relationship ended in July 2024.
She obtained a protection order the following September and later a safety order, which expires in 2030. The court was told that these orders allow the man to contact the phone of the couple’s oldest child, who was then ten.
The orders also said it was permissible for the man to speak to the woman under certain circumstances, relating to the children’s welfare.
The man messaged the child’s phone at 5.55am, asking her to get the injured party to contact him.
Later that day, he demanded that the woman contact him, making references in this message to going to hospital.
Several texts were sent and deleted. The woman spoke to the man around 6pm that evening and he referred to her current relationship.
She then went to her local garda station to make a complaint and saw the man standing outside.
He was heard to tell the woman he would take a photo of her and “if you go through with this, it will be the end of you and I’ll torture you for the rest of your life”.
An acquaintance of the injured party happened to be on the same road and overheard the man’s words.
That night, there were four missed calls on the child’s phone from the man. He also sent a message, which stated in part that “daddy was taken away to prison as mammy didn’t like what she heard”.
Other messages, some of which were addressed to the child, were not read in open court.
The investigating garda outlined that over 300 communications were sent by the man during the period. Some of the messages were described as aggressive and distressing.
All of these messages were sent through the child’s phone, which she gave to her mother. The court was told the girl read some of the messages.
Gardai made initial contact with the man after the woman went to the garda station, and he was arrested several days later after they became aware that there had been further communications.
When interviewed the man made some accusations against the woman, but nothing flowed from those complaints, the garda said.
Reading her victim impact statement to the court, the woman said she and the children faced “hell on earth” for several days until the man was arrested.
She said she “could not function with the amount of texts” received. The woman said the man is “unpredictable” and “acts on impulse”.
“He inflicted damage on myself and the children which is beyond repair,” she said.
The woman said her daughter was “terrified” to block the man and some messages sent to the phone were inappropriate, including threats and abusive language.
She outlined that her daughter suffers with anxiety and another child was also very scared as a result.
The woman said her mental health suffered, but she is trying to move forward to give the children a normal life.
The garda agreed with Maria Brosnan BL, defending, that her client “went off the rails” following the death of a child several years before this offending behaviour occurred.
It was further accepted that the man was in a state of heightened emotion and distress at the time.
Ms Brosnan handed in letters from the man, his mother and a psychological report.
She said her client is aware of what he has done and the steps he needs to take to address his mental health issues. She submitted the man has a history of suicidal ideation and at the time of this offending, was highly distressed.
The man has some work history in construction and counsel said he is capable of living a law-abiding life. Ms Brosnan said her client is remorseful and aware he shouldn’t have been messaging his daughter like that.