A MAN who harassed his ex-partner and her boyfriend because he was unwilling to accept the demise of their relationship was in court yesterday and is to be sentenced later at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
He is the father of four children with the woman.
The court was told Emmett Kavanagh tormented Jackie Delaney with text messages and phone calls and posted two bullet cartridges to her with her new partner’s name on the envelope.
Kavanagh (32), of Elm Mount Avenue, Beaumont, pleaded guilty to harassing Ms Delaney and Darren Cullen by persistently pestering them on dates between February 14th and May 14th, 2007.
Garda Patrick O’Gorman told Cathleen Noctor, prosecuting, that Kavanagh had been in a long-term relationship with Ms Delaney which ended in 2004. He said there was no contact between Kavanagh and Ms Delaney from 2004 until 2007, when Ms Delaney started seeing Mr Cullen.
On Valentine’s Day in 2007, Kavanagh showed up at Ms Delaney’s workplace with flowers and a Valentine’s card, which he told her were from their children. “He was aware Ms Delaney had a new boyfriend, but said to her, ‘Wait till he finds out you have four kids’,” Garda O’Gorman told Ms Noctor.
Ms Delaney started to receive unwelcome text messages and calls from Kavanagh, and he threatened in one text that he would shoot Mr Cullen. Gardaí cautioned Kavanagh several times about the texts. He agreed not to contact Ms Delaney anymore.
He told gardaí he was “upset” because he was not invited to his son’s Confirmation. He again started phoning Ms Delaney and telling her what she was wearing. He started following her. He sent texts saying “the kids don’t belong to him, you won’t stop me from seeing my kids”, and he “would shoot the c**t but I won’t coz he doesn’t mess the kids about”.
He started intimidating Mr Cullen and pulling up outside their home, doing handbrake turns in his car and shouting “You’re a dead man” at him.
Pieter Le Vert, defending, said: “It seems Mr Kavanagh wouldn’t let go of the past and when gardaí gave him several chances he denied everything and said it was always someone else’s fault.
“He began to use heroin to take away from the pain of losing Ms Delaney and his children, and this led to a downward spiral.”
Judge Patricia Ryan adjourned sentencing until February for a probation report.