A defendant\u2019s claim to be checking the sheep during lambing season failed to pursuade the jury\n<\/p>\n
John Foley (57), formerly of Tullig, Kenmare, was convicted on Friday of three charges of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Pat Harney (64) and a charge of criminal damage by a jury at Tralee Circuit Court.<\/p>\n
Events of the case culminated on April 2, 2020, when the Garda Armed Support Unit was called to the mountains of south Kerry, after leaving his house with a rifle following weeks of threats to Mr Harney. They found multiple licensed firearms on the family property.<\/p>\n
The jury was unconvinced by Mr Foley\u2019s assurances to garda\u00ed in 2020 that he was simply \u201cwith the sheep\u201d and carried his rifle as he did \u201cevery morning\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Foley\u2019s first threats occurred at Mr Harney\u2019s Kilgarvan residence on March 22, 2020, and while Mr Harney was driving home from Bantry on March 12, 2020 the court heard.<\/p>\n
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
There was also about a criminal damage charge for paint splattered on his door, wall and footpath on March 22, 2020.<\/p>\n
Over two days, the court heard testimony from witnesses including Ms Delaney, who alleged her jealous former partner left their property on April 2, 2020 after throwing a carving knife at her and threatening to kill her friend, Mr Harney.<\/p>\n
She told jurors she and Mr Foley had not been in a relationship since 2018, although they lived together.<\/p>\n
Further evidence included testimonies from two gardai, Ms Delaney\u2019s two brothers and Mr Harney, as well as two older interviews between Mr Foley and garda\u00ed. The accused did not take the stand.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, Judge Alec Gabbett addressed the jury at length before they left the courtroom to deliberate at 11.28am.<\/p>\n
Just before 1pm, a note from the jury was presented to the judge.<\/p>\n
He replied it was time to break for lunch, saying, \u201cA cup of tea and clarity, and we\u2019ll see how we go\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Delaney and her relative sat in the courtroom beside Mr Harney for much of the day waiting for verdict.<\/p>\n
When not in the dock, Mr Foley sat in the lobby by himself.<\/p>\n
In the afternoon the jury foreperson presented a guilty verdict for three charges.<\/p>\n
The jury deliberated a further 30 minutes and returned a guilty verdict for the first offence of threatening to kill on March 12.<\/p>\n
Mr Harney\u2019s eyes quickly filled with tears and he looked up, blinking them away for several minutes.<\/p>\n
Ms Delaney and Mr Foley maintained sober expressions.<\/p>\n
Judge Gabbett thanked jury members for performing their civic duty.<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed noted Mr Foley was no longer permitted to own firearms but this did not relieve the judge\u2019s concern that a similar situation could occur if Mr Foley was granted bail before his sentencing on April 29.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want a situation where, tonight, we\u2019re all back at square one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cThis is a case where the Armed Support Unit and armed garda\u00ed had to go out.\u201d He remanded Mr Foley in custody.<\/p>\n
Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A defendant\u2019s claim to be checking the sheep during lambing season failed to pursuade the jury John Foley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[128646,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-416342","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\/416342","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=416342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}