A man (44) has been sentenced to five years in jail with three years suspended after he was convicted of harassing his former girlfriend at various locations throughout Munster over a three-year period.
Seamus Quirke of Glencullen, Duntahane Road, Fermoy, Co Cork and was convicted by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in July of four counts of harassing Grainne Barry (35) a teacher at St Fanahan’s College in Mitchelstown on dates between February 2005 and July 2008.
Today, Judge Patrick Moran said it was notable that Quirke, a native of Ballyduff, Co Waterford, had expressed no remorse or issued any apology to Ms Barry for “the upset and probable psychological damage” that he had caused her by his persistent harassment.
Judge Moran noted that gardaí had spoken to Quirke about his behaviour towards Ms Barry as early as October 2005 when he suspected they advised him to desist but he had ignored that advice and continued harassing her repeatedly.
He had opted to contest the charges as was his constitutional right but in doing so, he had obliged Ms Barry to spend three days in the witness box during which time she had to discuss private matters in a highly public forum and that must have been an ordeal for her.
Judge Moran made it a condition of suspending the final three years of Quirke’s sentence that he not come within a mile of Ms Barry’s home in Fermoy or wherever she might reside and that he abide by this condition for a period of ten years.
Det Insp Brian Goulding outlined the background to the case where he catalogued the litany of incidents to which Quirke subjected Ms Barry after a chance encounter with her when she stopped at a filling station at Punches Cross in Limerick on February 19th, 2005.
Det Insp Goulding told how Ms Barry had begun a relationship with Quirke in July 1992 when she was just 18 and that it continued off and on until October 1996 when it ended acrimoniously.
She had no contact with him until that chance encounter in February 2005, triggering a series of incidents over the next three years in which Quirke began following her from work and from her home to such an extent that she was forced to get CCTV installed at her house.
During the trial, Ms Barry told how she had “felt incredibly invaded” and “very frightened and isolated” when she discovered that Quirke was shadowing her and she told of her horror in 2006 when she learned that Quirke had bought a house in the same estate as her in Fermoy.
Today, following sentence, Ms Barry issued a statement through her solicitor, Regina Forrest in which she thanked the gardai for their work and her family and friends for their support and said she wanted to put the matter behind her and move on with her life.
