Woman found not guilty of threatening to kill relatives

A WOMAN has been acquitted of threatening to kill members of her family after a judge directed that there was insufficient evidence to show the threats would be carried out.

Donna Whitehouse, aged 21, of Dublin St, Dundalk, Co Louth, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to three people, including an uncle and aunt of hers, at Balbriggan, on November 16, 2009.

During the one-day trial the jury heard evidence from those whom Ms Whitehouse was alleged to have threatened.

However, Judge Donagh McDonagh concluded there was no evidence that she had intended to follow through on the threats and that this was necessary for any conviction.

He said there was no discernible evidence that Ms Whitehouse intended that the injured parties should believe the threat would be carried out.

Judge McDonagh said: “There is insufficient evidence to enable that inference to be drawn. The correct course of action on the three counts remaining is to enter verdicts of not guilty.

“The accused is found not guilty by direction of the trial judge.”

Ms Whitehouse’s uncle, Thomas Whitehouse, had given evidence earlier in the day that Ms Whitehouse had made a gun-shaped gesture with her fingers towards him at Pinewood Green Road, Balbriggan, on November 16.

Conor Devally SC, defending, put it to Mr Whitehouse that he had told his client she was going to end up in Mountjoy prison and that she hadn’t made the gun shaped gesture, but Mr Whitehouse denied both these suggestions.

Martina Whitehouse, an aunt of Donna Whitehouse, told Martina Baxter BL, prosecuting, that she was driving to a Garda station on November 16 with a friend, Paula Hoey, when she met her niece.

She alleged that her niece then made threats against the two women.

Mr Devally said that when gardaí arrested Donna Whitehouse, she denied she had made any of the threats.

When they asked her if Martina Whitehouse was living in constant fear, Donna Whitehouse replied: “If she was in constant fear, she wouldn’t be living two seconds away from us.”

She also told gardaí: “All the Whitehouses were just as bad as each other.”

The allegations go back to an incident in 2005, which had split the family into opposing sides and which led to a court case in 2009, during which the threats were alleged to have been made.

In the afternoon of the trial, one juror had to be discharged after she realised she knew members of the Whitehouse family and alerted the judge to this fact.

After giving his judgment, Judge McDonagh said there should be no “triumphalism” on the part of any members of the “unfortunate family”.

He said: “All parties should learn a very serious lesson and they should go back to behaving like rational and reasonable human beings without the necessity of street toughness.”