Donegal man fined after posting Facebook video threatening to kill neighbour

A Donegal man who made a threat to kill a neighbour on a live video posted on Facebook has been fined after appearing in court.

Horse-trainer Matthew Boyle appeared at Letterkenny District Court charged with making the threats to Paul Gibson.

The court was told that Boyle, aged 33, of Parkview in Raphoe, posted the video following a dispute between the pair.

He is charged that he did without lawful excuse, make to Paul Gibson a threat, intending the said Paul Gibson to believe it would be carried out, to kill or cause him serious harm.

The charge is Contrary to Section 5 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.

Garda Sergeant Jim Collins said that it was "highly unlikely" that anybody would take the threats as "viable" and said the accused had some "intellectual difficulties."

Sergeant Collins said the threatening video had remained online for over an hour before Gardai contacted the accused.

Solicitor for the accused, Mr Donough Cleary, said his client had pleaded to the charge and that a probation report on Boyle had been concise and helpful.

He indicated that Boyle suffered from a mild learning difficulty.

He added that his client expressed remorse for what he did and described his own actions as "disgraceful”, but said he acknowledged the video would have been disturbing.

Mr Cleary said there was no animosity between the neighbours now and it has been three years since the video was posted in October, 2022.

He added that the probation report had placed Boyle as being at a low risk of reoffending.

Sergeant Collins said that while it was accepted that a threat was made, he did not think it was a viable threat and does not think it would have been followed up on.

Judge Emile Daly said the difficulty when posting material online, especially a video, is that it can give rise to bad behaviour from others who may view the video.

She addressed Boyle and told him this type of behaviour cannot happen again.

Again stressing to the accused that this was a serious matter, she fined Boyle €280.