A judge has welcomed the fact that a man (55) has been assessed as suitable to take part in a restorative justice programme after he threatened to kill a social worker involved in a court case that led to a young family member being taken into care.
Judge Mary Dorgan noted the man had expressed remorse for his actions and was now exhibiting empathy for his victim after engaging with the Probation Service, which recommended he be assessed to see if he was suitable to participate in a restorative justice programme in Tipperary.
The man cannot be named because it would identify the child at the centre of the original court case, but Judge Dorgan read out a report from the Probation Service that noted the accused had engaged well and “was able to identify the impact that his offending has had on the victim”.
The report noted the man was willing to participate in the restorative justice programme and that he was referred and found suitable to participate in the programme, and the victim was also contacted but had no wish to have any contact with the accused, which was understandable, said Judge Dorgan.
The man had pleaded guilty late last year to assaulting the woman at Washington Street Courthouse in Cork on April 3rd, 2023, and to making persistent phone calls to the woman and with two counts of making threats to kill or cause serious harm to her, all on May 9th, 2023.
During the original hearing at Cork District Court, Det Garda David Barry said the accused became angry after the social worker, who was employed by Tusla, was involved in obtaining an order to remove the man’s young relative and put them in care and he assaulted her outside the courthouse.
A month later, he rang her and left a series of messages including one where he called her a liar and said he would “blow you up” while in another he threatened he would “take your life” and in a third he said she had taken something from him, and he was now “going to take something from you”.
In the fourth and final message that he left on the social worker’s phone, he threatened to kill her, saying that “you can do what you want, you can record it, you s**t, but I’m telling you, I am going to take your life,” Det Garda Barry told the court.
Judge Dorgan also heard from the social worker who told in her victim impact statement of the terrifying effect the accused threats had on her as she listened to them on her phone before driving home from work one day in May last year.
“I froze with fear as each message played out. When you hear ‘I’m going to end your life’ several times, expressed with such anger, there was a visceral response in my body. My stomach turned, and I froze – possibly an hour passed before I could go in home and greet my family.
“When your life is threatened, it shakes you to your core, anxiously thinking if I was gone, who would care for my children because these are real moments of taking stock because the reality is one day a social worker will not return home as violence towards us and all working the front line increases.”
Defence solicitor Daithi Ó Donnabháin said that his client had indicated within a fortnight of being charged that he would be pleading guilty, and with assistance, because he was not hugely literate, had written a letter of apology to the social worker for the ordeal he had put her through.
He said his client was deeply upset over the child’s removal into care and on the day that he rang the social worker, he had been drinking all day, so much so that he had no recollection of making the threatening phone calls.
He said that his client had engaged fully with the Probation Service missing only one appointment due to a family bereavement and he was willing to engage with the restorative justice programme in Tipperary and believed he would benefit hugely from that engagement.
Judge Dorgan agreed and she adjourned the matter for two months as recommended by the Probation Service to allow the man to participate in the programme, and she remanded him in continuing bail to appear again on July 24th to complete the programme.
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