Father breaches barring order by speaking to teen daughter on street
A 56-year-old man faced sentencing yesterday arising out of an incident where he called out his teenaged daughter’s name as she passed him on the street and said he loved her.
The case was dealt with at an in camera hearing of Cork District Court yesterday and it concerned the breach of a barring order. The man had a barring order against him so is not allowed to contact his wife or children.
He was previously convicted and fined for breaching that order last year.
Yesterday he pleaded guilty through his solicitor, Eddie Burke, to a charge of breaching the order again on January 11 this year. Sgt Gearóid Davis said the man’s daughter and classmates were across the road from the accused who called out to her by name saying something like, “I love you, I am sorry.”
The teenager was upset and brought the incident to the attention of her teacher.
Mr Burke asked the judge to note the defendant’s reply after caution when the charge was put to him. He said, “I did not shout at her in an aggressive manner.”
Mr Burke said the accused had been directed to stay away from the area of the family home but not from the place where, by chance, the defendant saw his daughter.
Mr Burke said: “He said himself his daughter was shocked. He went straight to [his local] garda station and reported it himself. At that stage he was told there was no complaint of an incident.”
The solicitor said the man had not been allowed to see his children since June 2018. The defendant accepted he should not have reacted in the way he did. The defendant spoke in court and said it was obvious to him as soon as he greeted his daughter that she had gone into a panic.”
Judge Olann Kelleher said he would be concerned about any escalation. Mr Burke said there had been no incident since this occurred in January. Judge Kelleher fined him €200 for breaching the barring order.
