'I might have given a dirty look but that was it' - man acquitted of harassing and threatening to kill sister
A man accused of harassing his sister by sitting for hours in her Co Cork café staring at her, putting two fingers up to her and once threatening to kill her, was found not guilty by a jury today.
The jury took 30 minutes to reach their verdicts at the end of the trial of Eddie Ryall of Castlepooke South, Doneraile, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr Ryall, aged 48, pleaded not guilty to making a threat to kill his sister Myra O’Callaghan at Castlepooke Bridge in Doneraile on May 10 this year.
He also denied harassing her at her café over a three-month period in 2016. The jury found him not guilty on those charges.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin acceded earlier to a defence application by barrister Sinead Behan in relation to three other charges of alleged harassment – one related to his sister Myra, and two related to her husband Ray O’Callaghan.
The judge directed the jury to find Mr Ryall not guilty by direction of the trial judge.
Myra O’Callaghan told the seven women and five men of the jury she operated an interiors business in Mallow and Doneraile. She added to their business by opening a café in the Doneraile premises from December 2015.
When she opened the café, her brother began to come in for a pot of tea and, at first, she was quite pleased to see him.
“But he used to come in then for hours on end from early 2016 until roughly about March. He would order his tea. He would sit for hours and constantly stare. He would sit and stalk for days or weeks on end.
He would constantly stare and say horrible things under his breath. He would put his two fingers up.
“He would say the same thing to Ray calling him a creep, under his voice. It did not stop until he left months later,” she said.
Her brother also waved his fist when she was driving past on her way home, she said. Mrs O’Callaghan said she also found objects that her brother occasionally left at her front gate.
Asked by Donal McCarthy, prosecution barrister, what the items were, she replied: “Newspaper articles about murders.”
The witness said she would never forget May 10 when she and her husband were in their car travelling over Castlepooke Bridge and her brother was standing on it.
They had to slow down because it was so narrow, she said. “He pointed at my eyes and said ‘I will kill you’. I was petrified.”
Garda Ray Massey took a cautioned statement which the accused blamed his brother-in-law, Ray, for the falling out with his sister.
Asked about allegedly 'giving the finger' to his sister and her husband, he said: “Not in a threatening manner, more expressing opinion. I have given it to the car and a dirty look if that counts. I might have given a dirty look but that was it.”
On the alleged threat to kill his sister, he replied, “Jesus no, absolutely not… I am completely shocked to be accused of threatening to kill anyone.
"It would have been something like cop yourselves on or you should be ashamed of yourselves.”
