'Violence towards us increases': Man pleads guilty to threatening to kill social worker in Cork

The social worker, who was employed with Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, was involved in obtaining a care order to remove the man’s young relative and put them in care.

The words, “I’m going to end your life”, were heard over and over by a social worker when a man phoned her after a court case because he blamed her for his child being taken into care.

Detective Garda Dave Barry investigated the case where the accused man pleaded guilty to making the death threats and now faces sentencing.

Judge Dorgan viewed it as a very serious case especially in view of the social worker’s victim impact statement which she described as both compelling and generous to the accused.

The social worker said: “When your life is threatened, it shakes you to your core, anxiously thinking if I was gone, who would care for my children because these are real moments of taking stock because the reality is one day a social worker will not return home as violence towards us and all working the frontline increases.” 

Because of the possibility that identification of the parties would lead to identification of the defendant’s child there is a prohibition on naming them.

The social worker said the man rang her in a rage and threatened to kill her because she had been involved in a court case which led to the young family member being taken into care.

“I froze with fear as each message played out. When you hear ‘I’m going to end your life’ several times, expressed with such anger, that there was a visceral response in my body, my stomach turned, and I froze—possibly an hour passed before I could go in home and greet my family.” 

Threats

He was charged with assaulting the woman at Washington Street Courthouse on April 3, 2023. He was charged that on May 9, 2023, he made persistent phone calls to her without reasonable cause, and two counts that on May 9 he made a threat to the woman that he would kill her or cause serious harm.

Det. Garda Barry said that the accused became angry after the social worker, who was employed with Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, was involved in obtaining a care order to remove the man’s young relative and put them in care.

The defendant first confronted the social worker outside Washington Street Courthouse and began waving his arms in her face in an angry manner on April 3, followed by the threatening calls a month later.

In the first message he called her a liar and said that he would “blow you up”, while in the second message he threatened to “take your life” , and in the third message he said she had taken something from him and he was now “going to take something from you”. 

In the fourth and final message that he left on the social worker’s phone, he threatened to kill her, saying that “you can do what you want, you can record it, you shit, but I’m telling you, I am going to take your life”.

'It was the alcohol'

Defence solicitor, Daithi Ó Donnabháin, said that his client had indicated within a fortnight of being charged that he would be pleading guilty and, with assistance because he wasn’t hugely literate, had written a letter of apology to the social worker for the ordeal he had put her through.

The solicitor said that his client was acting as a parent for the child who was taken into care and he was deeply upset over his removal and on the day that he rang the social worker, he had been drinking all day, so much so that he had no recollection of making the threatening phone calls.

The accused said in court: “I am so sorry, I can’t believe that I did this—I was never in trouble before and I have never done anything like this before, it was the alcohol.” 

Judge Dorgan put sentencing back for a probation report as the defendant gave an undertaking to stay away from the social worker and have no contact with her or anybody in Tusla. Sentencing is adjourned until March 13, 2024.