A man who harassed his former partner by calling her up to 100 times a day and threatening to throw acid in her face and “kick your baby out of you” has been jailed for 5½ years.
Karl Fields (26) had been in a relationship with the woman and had a young child with her but he took issue with her new relationship which the court heard was the motivation behind his threats.
The woman was in her local Garda station making a complaint about the threatening calls when Fields phoned her. The investigating garda told the woman to answer the call and put Fields on speaker allowing the officer to hear him shouting that he would “put five petrol bombs through your mam’s gaff now”.
Garda Jennifer Keegan told Diarmuid Collins, prosecuting, that during other calls Fields called the woman “a mad rat” and threatened to butcher her. He said he hoped she, her mother and her partner died and he hoped “all your kids are handicapped”.
The woman was pregnant at the time and Fields at one point said he “would boot the baby out of you” and at other times threatened to cut her throat multiple times and throw acid in her face.
Garda Keegan said the woman eventually took a protection order out against Fields and he was arrested and charged in April 2020.
The following November Fields called at the woman’s home stood by the railings of her front garden and threatened to “burn your house to the ground” if she did not withdraw her earlier statement to the gardaí.
He had earlier sent the woman a text saying: “I swear to God you and your mam back track or you will see” before he called them “a rat”.
Fields of Collins Place, Finglas West, Dublin 11, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to harassment, threat to kill and contravention of a protection order on April 9th, 2020. He also admitted an additional threat to kill, threatening a witness and another contravention of a protection order on November 21st, 2020.
Fields has 184 previous convictions relating to breaches of an order, criminal damage, trespass, road traffic offences, burglary, theft and drug offences.
Judge Melanie Greally suspended the final 2½ years of an operative eight-year prison term.
The woman later told the gardaí that her children had been in her home at the time of Fields calling to the house and she was concerned he would come back and carry out the threats.
That night he continued to call the woman saying that he would “do time” over her and he was going to end her life and her partner’s life, calling her “a little snitch”.
Gardaí arrested Fields that night after they found him hiding in a wardrobe in his home. An empty jerry can was found in his car. He made no comment during the subsequent interview with gardaí and has been in custody since.
Mr Collins read the woman’s victim-impact statement into the record stating that she moved out of her mother’s home because of Fields’s earlier harassment. She said her situation would be “very different” were it not for Fields but she hoped prison would do him some good and give him time “to sort his head out”.
She said Fields put “a lot of fear on me and my family”. She said she still wanted him to have a relationship with his daughter but she added “he is not in the right frame of mind at the moment”.
Rebecca Smith, defending said her client had “an exceptionally difficult upbringing”. She said his parents were “chronic drug addicts” with whom he had no contact as a child and he was raised by his grandparents.
Counsel said her client was diagnosed with behavioural problems and began drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis. He was placed in care at the age of 14 and at 18 he “essentially went onto the streets”.
Ms Smith said he reconnected with his mother when he was aged 19, but she died of an overdose in 2014. She said his grandparents were still alive, but were unable to visit him in prison due to the restrictions.