Donegal man who text ex 'I will destroy you' in spite of barring order appears in court

A Donegal man who sent a threatening text message to his ex-partner has appeared in court.

The man, who is in his 30s and cannot be named for legal reasons, was before Letterkenny District Court, which was told that the man sent a message telling the woman: “I will destroy you”.

Gardai responded to a complaint when a woman reported that she had received several text messages from the man over an eight-hour period on the same day.

A safety order was in place at the time, the court heard.

The woman had told the man to leave her alone and threatened to ring the Gardai and he replied with a thumbs up. 

Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that the messages were of an annoying nature until the last one, which was of a threatening nature.

The man was arrested and made admissions when interviewed. 

He was charged that he breached a safety order issued at Letterkenny District Court, a charge contrary to section 33 (1) of the Domestic Violence Act, 2018.

Solicitor for the man, Mr Rory O’Brien, said the relationship broke down due to a “relationship outside of their realm”. Mr O’Brien said the parties had separated and his client fully accepted that the incident shouldn’t have happened.

Mr O’Brien said there has been no difficulty since and that the man “fully accepts his wrong”.

Judge Emile Daly said that a safety order had been in place at the time and it couldn’t be the case that the man didn’t understand what was going on.

Judge Daly said she accepted the current position between the parties. The man was fined €300 and given four months to pay.