Kilkenny man who harassed Offaly woman is back in court

A KILKENNY man breached an order banning him from making any contact with an Offaly woman he had previously harassed, Tullamore District Court heard.

John Coady (32), from north Kilkenny and whose address according to court records was Ryan's Pub, Clogh, had paid €5,000 to the woman at a court appearance in October last year.

The payment followed a plea of guilty to a charge of harassing a lady on a date unknown between May 11 and December 16, 2022.

Coady, a contestant in the Westmeath Bachelor festival last year, was released on bail on condition he attend psychotherapy and not contact the injured party.

Judge Andrew Cody adjourned finalisation of the matter to October this year and indicated that if there was no further offending and a positive follow-up psychotherapy report then the court would consider striking out the charges. By order of the court, the woman cannot be identified.

However, Coady was back before Tullamore District Court on April 17 after breaching the conditions of his bail.

Judge Cody revoked his bail and remanded him to appear in court again yesterday, April 24.

At that sitting, the judge detailed how he had broken the terms of his bail within two months of the October 2023 order.

On January 1 this year the woman received a friend request on social media which the gardai believed was from Coady. On another social media app, a comment was left by a man calling himself “Peter O’Toole” using language which had been used by the injured party in her victim impact statement.

Gardai believed that this statement was from the accused. Coady, seated in the custody area of the courtroom, reacted by shaking his head when he heard the judge saying that.

Continuing, Judge Cody said that on January 2 last the accused put a link to an article about his prior court appearance and a photograph of the injured party on a relation of the injured party’s Facebook page. In interview he alleged his own Facebook page had been hacked.

The judge then outlined a number of breaches which occurred this month. On April 2 a number of the injured party’s friends advised her that Coady had requested them to follow his Instagram page and he followed their Instagram pages. “These remain allegations and have not been proved in court,” said Judge Cody.

He added that last week the court heard evidence that Coady rang the woman on April 4 and “in the victim’s words he was going around in circles before she eventually had to hang up”.

He then rang her back, but she didn’t answer and he then texted her, asking her to talk to him. On April 8 he sent an email to the injured party’s boss apologising for his previous spurious complaint.

The judge said what happened on the night of April 16 was “most shocking”. Coady arrived unannounced at the injured party’s front door at 10.45pm and spent 20 minutes speaking with her parents at the door, requesting to speak to the injured party.

The woman’s mother gave evidence that when she answered the door and asked Coady who he was he replied in a most sinister manner “you know who I am”.

He was told that he should not be there and that he was breaching his bail. The injured party’s mother said he shouldn’t be there and pleaded with him to leave and asked him to look for help.

He told her he had attended four sessions of counselling that cost “€90 a pop” and he couldn’t afford any more. The woman's parents pleaded with him to move on and to leave their daughter alone before eventually telling him that he had to leave.

“The injured party and all her family were quite understandably disturbed and shaken by these events,” said Judge Cody.

The judge said he took into account the accused had the support of his family, had no previous convictions and that his actions were at the lower end in terms of threats, as they “didn’t involve for the most part aggression”.

The accused was also entitled to some credit for his early plea and an early, albeit insincere, expression of remorse, and his attendance for some counselling.

“However, such mitigating factors pale into relative insignificance following the actions of Mr Coady earlier this month,” said the judge.

He said Coady had continued his “campaign of harassment” of the woman and turned up at her door late at night even though he was fully aware of the effect his actions had on her and her family.

His victim had said that a previous attendance at her home by him was the most chilling aspect and described that she was shaken to the core and was taken aback by his lack of awareness.

“Everyone has the right to healthy and safe experiences and relationships and consent is the foundation stone of such experiences and relationships,” said the judge.

“It is a matter of grave concern that Mr Coady fails to appreciate or understand the meaning of consent and the simple request by a woman that she be left alone and that he is incapable of understanding the effect of his actions on his innocent victim, despite them being clearly articulated in her victim impact report.”

The victim said in the impact report that she met the accused on a dating app and then went on three dates in 2021.

She said she was finding it difficult to express the full extent of the physical and mental impact that two years of the accused’s relentless and persistent actions had on her. She had sleepless nights and nightmares, was constantly looking over her shoulder and from being a strong independent woman, she no longer felt safe to be on her own.

The nightmare started when the accused found out her home address and sent her letters and money which startled her.

The accused continued to socialise in Offaly despite living over two hours away. He spoke to people she went to school with and was asking about her family.

He continued to add her friends on social media and tried to add members of her family and messaged her several times on various social media platforms.

Once when she went to a local late-night bar the accused was thrown out because the bouncer could see how uncomfortable the injured party felt.

The accused would not take no for an answer and when the injured party didn’t talk to him he waited outside for hours and followed her to a taxi rank and wouldn’t leave her alone and even when arrested he continued to say that he needed to talk to her.

Another incident that stood out was when she was away on a weekend in a different county at a hen party and the accused showed up in a bar that night.

When the woman changed jobs Coady “overstepped clear boundaries”, the judge said, by contacting her place of work in order to gain personal information about her role. He made false allegations about her.

“The injured party said that every time she sees a black Audi, her heart sinks thinking that it might be him.”

She said on nights out when he showed up, she would be uptight and nervous and have heart palpitations.

The conduct of Coady impacted herself, her entire family and circle of friends, and had an extremely detrimental effect on the woman both physically and mentally.

Last year the court heard Coady was a single man with a degree in agricultural science who lived at home on the farm and also worked as a part-time gravedigger.

He had become infatuated with the injured party and was devastated by his actions which he very much regretted but had a new partner so there was no question that he would ever go near the injured party again.

Coady told the court last year: “I am very sorry about my behaviour. I thought she was beautiful. I am not a dangerous person.”

Yesterday Judge Cody said he would release the man on bail on his own bond of €200, plus an independent surety of €3,000 or €3,000 in cash.

Defence counsel David Nugent (instructed by Tony McLynn solicitor, to whom the accused's legal aid was transferred) told the court the cash for the bail was in court.

Strict conditions of bail were imposed, including an order that the accused undergo treatment for drug, alcohol or other substance addiction, any course of education, training or therapy, and in particular psychological counselling or other treatment, as may be recommended by his GP.

He must be available to gardai at all times by mobile phone and within a week of April 24 is to unfollow, unfriend and in whatever manner is necessary, disengage from all social media accounts of the injured party, her family, and friends.

He is barred from entering Offaly and if he has to travel through the county he must only alight from a vehicle if he has a medical reason to do so.

His bail conditions bar him from going to the woman's workplace or contacting her or any fellow employees there.

He must not communicate with the injured party “in any manner whatsoever” and must not approach or be within 100 metres of her and if he happens to do so “inadvertently” he must travel at least one kilometre away “no matter what the circumstances”.

He must not follow, watch, pester, monitor, track or spy upon the injured party and must not disclose any private information to any person in respect of her.

A restraining order keeping those conditions in place for five years was also made and if Coady breaches any part of the order, he is liable to a fine of up to €5,000 or 10 years in prison or both.

Judge Cody said the man must be under no illusion that the court is also now considering a custodial sentence, part of which may be suspended.

Coady must appear in court again on October 23 next.