Judge Dara Hayes said while the defendant had turned her life around “it was serious offending and an attack on the Criminal Justice system”
A mother of one who was put under pressure to offer another woman €5,000 to withdraw her complaint in an alleged domestic violence related assault case, has been jailed for nine months at Dundalk Circuit Court for witness intimidation.
Tanya Reilly (37) of Farndreg, Cox’s Demesne, Dundalk had pleaded guilty last June on the day she was due to go on trial charged with intimidating the woman on March 6th 2022, with the intention of causing the investigation or the course of justice to obstructed, perverted or interfered with.
The defendant called to the woman’s father’s home the day after she made her complaint and told her she was being offered €5,000 to withdraw her statement of complaint.
Tanya Reilly was arrested on March 22nd and accepted that she had called, but said she was only acting as a messenger.
The court heard the woman involved bears no ill will towards the defendant, who had 10 previous convictions – one for affray and the rest for theft offences.
Judge Dara Hayes noted Ms Reilly had been placed under a 12 month Probation supervision bond in July ’24 and she had also successfully completed 100 hours community service which were imposed in February last year.
He added it had been submitted that the defendant got involved out of fear for own safety and that of her daughter, and her level of risk of re-offending, which was previously on the lower end of moderate, has fallen as she has worked extremely hard on her rehabilitation over the last 18 months.
At the time, Ms Reilly had struggled with an addiction to ‘street’ sleeping tablets and had mental health issues but she had self-referred herself to the Turas counselling service and is now drug free having completed a 12 month detox programme under the supervision of her GP.
A number of references had been handed into the court from friends and neighbours and while the judge said they all speak well of the defendant, he described them as generic those who had written them appeared unaware of the nature of the offending with one simply signed “a concerned neighbour”.
Judge Hayes said the defendant has turned her life around in every possible way, but he added that it was serious offending and an attack on the Criminal Justice system and it was aggravated by seeking an alleged victim of a domestic assault to withdraw her complaint.
He imposed a two and a half year sentence, but said there was much mitigation in the matter and in this case, “it is the fact of the sentence that is important, rather than its length”.
He suspended the final 21 months of the sentence on Ms Reilly entering a good behaviour bond and placing herself under the supervision of the Probation Service for 12 months post release.