Estranged husband told wife he was going to use knife 'to kill' her, Cork court told

The court heard the man turned up at her workplace and slapped her once in the face before making the death threat

Detective Garda Peter Nolan gave this evidence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in the case against a 46-year-old man who pleaded guilty to a number of charges including making a death threat to his wife and assaulting her. File picture: Larry Cummins

A woman was terrified when her estranged husband turned up at her workplace, slapped her once in the face, showed her a knife and said she had a only a few weeks to live, adding: “I am going to use it to kill you.” 

Detective Garda Peter Nolan gave this evidence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in the case against a 46-year-old man who pleaded guilty to a number of charges including making a death threat to his wife and assaulting her.

Det. Garda Nolan said that at 11am on April 16 the 42-year-old injured party was at her place of work when her estranged husband arrived.

“He handed her an envelope of cash for the children and slapped her once with force across the side of her face.

“He produced a knife and showed it to her. He said, ‘You have to be aware I am going to hurt you in a few weeks. I have this gift from your dad’ in reference to the knife and he said, ‘I am going to use it to kill you. You have to know you have only a few short weeks of your life left. I will destroy your life’,” Det. Garda Nolan said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Two months before this incident the defendant had moved out of the family home following the breakdown of the marriage.

The victim told Det. Garda Nolan she had never seen her husband looking as angry as he was on April 16 although he spoke calmly to her. At the time she made her complaint she believed her husband was capable of carrying out the threats.

There were — and still are — orders in place under the Domestic Violence Act in terms of the defendant’s behaviour towards his former wife. For this reason the parties cannot be identified in coverage of the case.

Sentencing

Defence barrister, Mahon Corkery, said that what occurred in April arose out of the very sad breakdown of a marriage to which the defendant was fully committed. He said that the accused had no intention of harming anyone and would not do so and was anxious to leave the country within a week or two.

Prosecution barrister, Brendan Kelly, said it was a matter for the court but that such an outcome would be acceptable to the injured party.

Judge Helen Boyle said: “This is not an order the court would make ordinarily. But it does seem to be one that would be favoured by the injured party.” The judge imposed a sentence of four years backdated to when he went into custody more than six months ago and suspended the balance of it.

He was first remanded in custody until December 6 to show that he has booked a flight to leave the country and not to return for seven years.

In the course of the sentencing hearing, Mr Corkery said the accused had been interviewed by gardaí over a period of six hours and he remarked that it was an extremely humane interview.

“From the minute he was stopped and interviewed he was fully co-operative and he gave a full and frank account — he was tearful and remorseful,” Mr Corkery suggested. Det. Garda Nolan agreed and said: “Yes, and I fully believe that was genuine and not for effect.”

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