A TRAINED mechanic who used his social networking site to advertise the fact he was going to shoot an acquaintance of his ex-girlfriend and that he would "do the prison time for it" has been jailed for three years.
Michael Mooney (24) also posted the charge sheet on his Bebo site that had resulted from his arrest for setting fire to his ex-girlfriend's car and pouring acid on her friend's car.
He had told gardaí he would give Stacey Kinsella €10,000 to cover the €6,200 damage to her car, but later stated on his Bebo site he was not going to give her the money and that instead he was going to pay five or six girls "to bottle her" at her local pub and then he would go to Australia.
Garda Vincent Brick agreed with Damien Colgan, defending, that Mooney had told gardaí during interview that Ms Kinsella's uncle had approached a known criminal, Marlo Hyland, "to sort him out", which led to Mooney allegedly receiving threats from Hyland's nephew, Jason Hyland, about late 2005, early 2006.
Garda Brick said gardaí investigated this allegation and were not able to confirm it had happened.
He also accepted Mooney had been slashed across the face and received 130 stitches in December 2003. A person has since been convicted of the assault, but Garda Brick said it had nothing to do directly with Ms Kinsella.
Mooney, of Lanesboro Mews, Finglas, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to damaging Ms Kinsella's car twice, damaging Raymond Gibbs's car twice and threatening to kill Mr Gibbs on dates between June 29th, 2006, and January 4th, 2007.
Judge Frank O'Donnell described Mooney's conduct as "sinister" and imposed three sentences of two years and two sentences of three years, all to run concurrently. Garda Brick told James Dwyer, prosecuting, that Mooney and Ms Kinsella's relationship had ended about 18 months previously when an associate of his smashed the windows of her car causing €200 worth of damage.
Two months later, Mooney smashed up her car before setting it on fire, writing off the vehicle.
In November 2005, Mooney slashed the tyres of Mr Gibbs's car and four days later poured acid over the car causing more than €2,000 worth of damage.
Mooney had 14 previous convictions, all dealt with in the District Court. Mr Colgan said Mooney was extremely remorseful and ashamed of his behaviour.