Warned to stay away from love rival’s apartment complex

By Eimear Dodd

A Dublin Circuit Criminal Court judge has told a woman who made “frightening” and “nasty” threats to her love rival to stay away from the apartment complex where her victim resides.

Audrey McKeever (38) pleaded guilty to charges of making threats to kill or cause serious harm and criminal damage at an apartment complex in Crumlin on December 20, 2022.

Detective Garda Jason Weir told prosecuting counsel today that the injured party was in a relationship with the man McKeever has had an on-and-off relationship with for a number of years.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard there was an issue between the women which escalated and McKeever of Emmet Crescent, Inchicore, Dublin 8 went to the apartment complex where the victim lived.

The victim went inside to get away from McKeever.

As she closed the outer door of the complex, McKeever kicked it, breaking the magnet on the lower part of the door and causing over €1,000 worth of damage.

McKeever was heard by the victim shouting that she was going to kill her and “dance all over her daughter’s head”.

The victim was terrified by the threats and could hear McKeever looking for her in the complex, repeating the threats.

While McKeever knew the woman lived in the complex, she was not aware of her exact address.

An independent witness heard McKeever call the victim a “homewrecker” and say she was going to kill her.

At 8.50pm on the same night, McKeever posted material on Facebook including that she “needed to calm down” and was “ready for the charge she’d get for you”.

She described the  victim as a “waste of space” and said she would be back every night.

Gardai were called and CCTV was obtained, which showed McKeever arriving at the complex.

After her arrest, McKeever was fully co-operative with gardai, made admissions and identified the relevant Facebook posts.

The court heard McKeever has a number of previous convictions, but they are historic and none are relevant.

A victim impact statement was handed to the court, but not read aloud at the request of the victim.

Det Gda Weir agreed with Pieter Le Vert BL, defending, that there has been no repeat of this incident and his client has not come to recent garda attention.

It was further agreed that McKeever is a mother of two children whom she effectively raised alone as their father spent time in custody.

Det Gda Weir agreed that this relationship ended and McKeever’s ex-partner started a relationship with the victim.

It was also accepted that McKeever allowed him back into her life, then became aware that he was still seeing the victim.

Mr Le Vert put it to the witness that this man is “involved in criminality” and that if McKeever says she is afraid of this man then she has “reason to be”, which was also accepted.

Mr Le Vert told the court that his client is someone who “suffers with nerves” and was on medication at the time of this incident.

He said she was under pressure at the time due to other circumstances and started to use illegal substances.

He said she sought help to detox within five days of her arrest and is now drug-free.

He said she has some work history and is now in training.

Her mother was in court to support her.

Defence counsel handed a number of references and letters to the court.

He said his client had faced serious health issues this year and is of limited means, but had brought €230 as a token of remorse.

Judge Martin Nolan said McKeever’s behaviour towards the victim was “nasty” and “frightening”.

He said he took the mitigating factors into consideration, including the guilty plea and the expressions of remorse.

He noted that McKeever’s previous convictions are historic and minor, with the most recent dating back 10 years.

He said the court considered it unlikely she would re-offend to any great degree in future and did not think she deserved a prison sentence at this time.

He imposed a sentence of 18 months suspended on strict conditions and directed the token of remorse is paid towards the cost of repairing the apartment complex door.

He ordered McKeever to pay a further €500 in the 15 months to defray the cost of damage caused.

Judge Nolan also directed McKeever to have no contact with the victim.

He told her she was “not to go near that apartment building”, adding there was “no need” as she lives two miles away.