Man posted death threats on his Bebo site, court hears
A trained mechanic who used his social networking site to advertise the fact that he was going to shoot an acquaintance of his ex-girlfriends and that he would “do the prison time for it” has been jailed for three years.
Michael Mooney (aged 24), also then posted the charge sheet on his Bebo site that had resulted from his arrest for setting fire to his ex-girlfriend's car and pouring acid on her friend's boyfriend's car.
He had told gardaí that he would give Stacey Kinsella €10,000 to cover the €6,200 damage to her car but later stated on his Bebo site that he was not going to give her the money and that instead he was going to pay five or six girls “to bottle her” at her local pub and then he would go to Australia.
Garda Vincent Brick agreed with Mr Damien Colgan BL, defending, that Mooney had told gardaí during interview that Ms Kinsella's uncle had approached a known criminal, Marlo Hyland, “to sort him (Mooney) out”, which led to Mooney allegedly receiving threats from Hyland's nephew, Jason Hyland in around late 2005, early 2006.
Gda Brick said gardaí investigated this allegation and were not able to confirm that it had happened.
He also accepted that Mooney had been slashed across the face and received 130 stitches in December 2003. A person has since been convicted of the assault but Gda Brick said it had nothing to do directly with Ms Kinsella.
Mooney of Lanesboro Mews, Finglas, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to damaging Ms Kinsella's car twice, once by fire, damaging Raymond Gibb's car twice and threatening to kill Mr Gibbs on dates between June 29, 2006 and January 04, 2007.
Judge Frank O'Donnell described Mooney's conduct as “sinister” and imposed three sentences of two years and two sentences of three years, all to run concurrently.
Gda Brick told Mr James Dwyer BL, prosecuting, that Mooney and Ms Kinsella's relationship had ended about 18 months previously when an associate of his smashed the windows of her car causing €200 worth of damage.
Two months later Mooney smashed up her car before setting it on fire, writing off the vehicle.
In November 2005 Mooney slashed the tyres of Mr Gibb's car and four days later poured acid over the car causing just over €2,000 worth of damage.
Gda Brick said that Mooney advertised Mr Gibb's home address on his own Bebo site inviting people to pay the man a visit and then posted that he himself would shoot Mr Gibb's and do the prison time for it.
Mooney had 14 previous convictions that were all dealt with in the District Court.
Gda Brick agreed with Mr Colgan that Mooney had never been charged with making threats to Ms Kinsella, that five or six girls had never assaulted her and that he had never moved to Australia.
Mr Colgan told Judge O'Donnell that nothing justified Mooney's actions and that he accepted that and was extremely remorseful and ashamed of his behaviour.
He said that Mooney was not in a position to offer either Ms Kinsella or Mr Gibbs any compensation but asked the judge to accept that he was “genuinely not a bad person” and that there were “two sides to the story”.
