John Foley (57), formerly of Tullig, Kenmare, pleaded not guilty to three charges of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Pat Harney and a charge of criminal damage.<\/p>\n
There were three alleged incidents at the beginning of the pandemic at Mr Harney\u2019s residence in Kilgarvan, the court heard. The third threat directed at him was made to Mr Foley\u2019s former partner, Margaret \u2018Peggy\u2019 Delaney, at their rural residence in Tullig, Kenmare.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Ms Delaney and the defendant, Mr Foley, had children together and lived together at the time, but Ms Delaney said they were not in a relationship at that time.<\/p>\n
Taking the stand, Pat Harney (64) explained how he knew Mr Foley from working on a site together and knew Ms Delaney from installing, and occasionally repairing, broadband in their family house.<\/p>\n
Mr Harney testified that he received a brief phone call from an unknown number on the morning of March 12, 2020, while driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me, he\u2019d kill me and burn the house,\u201d said Mr Harney.<\/p>\n
When asked if the caller said why he had made the threat, Mr Harney responded, \u201cIt\u2019s so long ago\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court heard he received another call on the morning of March 22, 2020 where he alleged Mr Foley told him, \u201cIt\u2019s time to get the petrol\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Harney said he was on a ladder installing surveillance cameras at 2.35pm when he received a third phone call from Mr Foley, who said in a low voice, \u201ccameras won\u2019t save you at all\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Harney testified that there was \u201ca clattering and banging\u201d and he found cream-coloured paint strewn across the footpath, door and wall of his house.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rang the garda\u00ed at that stage,\u201d said Mr Harney. \u201cI said, \u2018Jesus, this is getting out of hand, it\u2019s gone too far altogether\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
On April 2, he said three garda\u00ed came to his house from Kenmare and they escorted him out of Kilgarvan for his safety.<\/p>\n
Barrister for the defence Katie O\u2019Connell, instructed by solicitor Eimear Griffin, questioned his relationship with Ms Delaney.<\/p>\n
Mr Harney explained he was divorced years before 2020 and maintained he had no relationship with Ms Delaney until \u201cmany, many\u201d months after the threats.<\/p>\n
He said she cleaned his house about once a week and he had given her a key because he was usually out when she came.<\/p>\n
Ms O\u2019Connell questioned why he had \u201ccompletely wiped out\u201d Ms Delaney from his initial testimony, although he had previously told garda\u00ed that threats related to their friendship.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he replied. \u201cThis is about me on the day he threatened me with my life. He was thinking there was something happening with me and Peggy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Delaney began her testimony by stating she was in a relationship with Mr Foley from 1999 to Christmas 2018, when they \u201cfinished as a couple\u201d due to an unrelated event.<\/p>\n
She confirmed Mr Harney was seldom at his house while she cleaned, adding he would phone her afterwards with thanks.<\/p>\n
She said Mr Foley\u2019s jealousy was \u201cirrelevant\u201d because they were not a couple.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in the same house because I couldn\u2019t go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mr Foley willingly drove her to Mr Harney\u2019s house to clean, even as his jealousy grew, she claimed. But, at one point, she said Mr Foley claimed someone \u2018owed him a favour\u2019 and he planned to have Mr Harney assaulted.<\/p>\n
Ms Delaney said her former partner nicknamed Mr Harney \u2018lover boy\u2019 and deliberately made the threatening calls from the kitchen so she would overhear.<\/p>\n
Mr Foley referred to her by a range of misogynistic slurs, she told the court. As she listed these insults, she began to cry and recalled how his demeanour changed before others.<\/p>\n
She told the court he had promised to \u201csort Pat out once and for all\u201d and threatened suicide, while alleging she would be responsible for his death.<\/p>\n
She alleged Mr Foley was \u201cfuming\u201d on the morning of April 2, 2020 and threatened to murder Mr Harney before driving away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat day, when he went out of the door, he was going killing Pat and he took the gun with him, a big rifle with a scope on it,\u201d she said, \u201cHe had it on his shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before Mr Foley left, she alleges he threw a carving knife \u201cacross the kitchen\u201d at her and threw a steel knife onto the floor, which stuck between her feet.<\/p>\n
Once he was gone, she rang a garda in Kenmare and emergency services.<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly believed he was going to kill Pat,\u201d she testified.<\/p>\n
She later left the house with two female relatives, including a child.<\/p>\n
In cross-examination, she explained that she had sought Mr Foley\u2019s permission to clean for Mr Harney because it made life \u201ceasier\u201d in their \u201cvolatile house\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn and I were not together,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were living in the same house. But John still believed he had some, I don\u2019t know, rights over me or something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her brothers, Patrick Joseph \u2018PJ\u2019 Delaney and John Delaney, testified they drove to Kilgarvan looking for Mr Foley on March 22.<\/p>\n
PJ Delaney said he found the defendant\u2019s vehicle parked \u2018just above\u2019 Jackie Healy-Rae\u2019s Bar on what is known as \u2018the bog road\u2019 at about 3.30pm.<\/p>\n
Mr Foley drove off when they approached him.<\/p>\n
On the second day of the court hearing, testimony moved on to the culmination of events.<\/p>\n
The court heard that the Garda Armed Support Unit, based in Limerick and Cork, was called to Mr Foley\u2019s property on April 2 after he left the house with his rifle. Eight garda\u00ed positioned themselves around the property, said Sergeant Ian Kelly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey arrived unseen, as well, from Tralee and took up positions just below the house marked as John Foley\u2019s,\u201d Sgt Kelly told the jury.<\/p>\n
After numerous calls, contact was made with Mr Foley by 3.30pm.<\/p>\n
On the property, garda\u00ed recovered a wallet and licensed firearms, including a .243 rifle found under a trailer, a shotgun in a gun safe and a .22 rifle at PJ Delaney\u2019s.<\/p>\n
In cross-examination, Sgt Kelly described watching Mr Foley walk down the mountain with a black object in the crook of his arm.<\/p>\n
To onlookers\u2019 relief, it turned out to be a lamb.<\/p>\n
Garda James Hendrick testified that he saw paint \u201csplattered\u201d on the footpath, front door and wall of Mr Harney\u2019s house on March 22.<\/p>\n
Mr Foley watched every testimony from the dock.<\/p>\n
He did not go under oath but his two garda\u00ed interviews from weeks following the events were read in court.<\/p>\n
In the first, he said Mr Harney texted and rang Ms Delaney \u201cevery five minutes\u201d.<\/p>\n
He admitted to throwing a quarter gallon of paint from his car onto Mr Harney\u2019s driveway and that, on April 2, he broke a coffee mug in anger before leaving for work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got my gun, as I do every morning,\u201d he said, \u201cI got the bales of hay, I fed the horses in Kilgarvan, I feed the sheep in Tullig.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told garda\u00ed he had \u201cabout 20\u201d missed calls that day from an unidentified number but never answers unknown callers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd where I was, I was with the sheep,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He admitted to calling Mr Harney.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t threaten anyone, I just said, \u2018please, I wanted to keep the family together\u2019,\u201d he told garda\u00ed. \u201cI\u2019d say Peggy panicked when I left the house when I was in a bad mood.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his concluding remarks, Barrister Rice reminded the jury that conviction was a question of Mr Foley\u2019s intent to make others believe he would execute the alleged threats.<\/p>\n
Barrister O\u2019Connell concluded by saying Mr Foley had gone to work, as usual, to tend the flock near his home.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe comes down the mountain from his sheep and what does he have in his hands?\u201d she asked. \u201cA lamb. Is that what we\u2019re trying to kill people with these days?\u201d<\/p>\n
The jury will deliberate on Friday after a statement from Judge Alec Gabbett.<\/p>\n
Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Foley (57), formerly of Tullig, Kenmare, pleaded not guilty to three charges of threatening to kill or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[128646,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-415157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-anna-zacharias","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}