Ex-wife was afraid of husband, court hears

The former wife of an Irish Muslim charged with threatening to kill a US lawyer said she was “afraid of him” when they separated.

Mary Cronin, from Cork, told Waterford Circuit Court that Ali Charaf Damache “had changed” by the end of their marriage.

The court has heard that Michigan-based lawyer Majed Moughni received an alleged death threat over the phone the day after he held a rally in Detroit against Islamic terrorism on Jan 8, 2010. Mr Damache, aged 45, who has an Irish passport, is charged with making a threat to kill Mr Moughni, on Jan 9, 2010. He is also charged with making a menacing phone call to Mr Moughni from Waterford City on the date.

Mr Damache, originally from Algeria and with an address at John Colwyn House, High St, Waterford, has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Ms Cronin told Judge Donagh McDonagh that she first met Mr Damache in 2001 or 2002 in Cork City.

She said he introduced himself as a Frenchman by the name of Alex Thierry Garnier, and they started a relationship. She said they married in a registry office in Limerick late in 2002.

Ms Cronin said they lived in a number of addresses in Cork before she bought a house in 2005.

She told Michael Delaney, prosecuting, that she spent their first Christmas at her parents’ house as Mr Damache “didn’t want to celebrate Christmas”.

She said he was not a practicing Muslim before they got married, but that he started soon afterwards.

Ms Cronin said she once met her husband on the street with someone else and he ignored her and walked past. She said he told her it was part of his religion not to speak to someone of the opposite sex when he was with someone else.

Ms Cronin said they began splitting up in 2007 and legally separated in 2008. He moved out permanently at the end of 2008 to Waterford, she said.

Mr Delaney asked her about the last contact she had with him when they separated. She said he arrived to her home one day: “He came to the house. I didn’t want to let him in. I was afraid of him. He had changed.”

Micheal O’Higgins, defending, put it to her that she had described Mr Damache in her statement as a “quiet sort of man” who was “interested in studies”. She agreed she had.

Ms Cronin also agreed that she said Mr Damache was “genuinely upset” when talking about his children from a previous relationship, and seemed “to be driven to provide” for them.

Mr O’Higgins said Mr Damache had worked in house-to-house sales in Cork, had worked in Musgraves and had done courses in auctioneering and law.