A 44-YEAR-OLD man has been sentenced to five years in jail with three years suspended for harassing his former girlfriend over a three-year period.
Séamus Quirke of Glencullen, Duntahane Road, Fermoy, Co Cork, was convicted by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in July of four counts of harassing Gráinne Barry (35), a teacher at St Fanahan's College in Mitchelstown, on dates between February 2005 and July 2008. Yesterday Judge Patrick Moran said it was notable that Quirke, a native of Ballyduff, Co Waterford, had expressed no remorse or issued any apology to Ms Barry for "the upset and probable psychological damage" he had caused by his persistent harassment.
Judge Moran noted that gardaí had spoken to Quirke about his behaviour towards Ms Barry as early as October 2005. But he had continued harassing her repeatedly. He had opted to contest the charges, as was his constitutional right, but in doing so he had obliged Ms Barry to spend three days in the witness box during which time she had to discuss private matters in a highly public forum, which must have been an ordeal for her.
Judge Moran made it a condition of suspending the final three years of Quirke's sentence that he not come within a mile of Ms Barry's home in Fermoy or wherever she might reside and that he abide by this condition for 10 years.
Det Insp Brian Goulding outlined the background to the case where he catalogued the litany of incidents to which Quirke subjected Ms Barry after a chance encounter with her when she stopped at a filling station at Punches Cross in Limerick on February 19th, 2005.
Det Insp Goulding told the court Ms Barry had begun a relationship with Quirke in July 1992 when she was 18. This continued off and on until October 1996, when it ended acrimoniously.
She had no contact with him until that chance encounter in February 2005, triggering a series of incidents over the next three years in which Quirke began following her from work and from her home to such an extent that she was forced to get CCTV installed at her house.
During the trial Ms Barry told the court how she had "felt incredibly invaded" and "very frightened and isolated" when she discovered Quirke was shadowing her. She told of her horror when, in 2006, she learned that he had bought a house in the same estate in Fermoy.
Yesterday she issued a statement saying she wanted to put the matter behind her and move on.