A NEWPORT man who sent his ex-girlfriend 658 text messages after they spilt up pleading with her to get back together gave an undertaking that he would not have any further contact with her.
Ray Collins of Cahergall, Newport sent the ‘unwelcome’ messages over an eleven-month period between February 2009 and January 2010 to his ex-girlfriend, Sylvia Duffy. The messages were described as ‘feeble attempts’ for them to get back together where he referred to her as ‘tinkerbell’ and on a number of occasions stated ‘we are the same’.
Westport District Court also heard that Mr Collins (29) also approached her in pubs in Westport where he would pinch her, and on one occasion purposely spilled a glass of whiskey down her dress. On another occasion he approached her in O’Grady’s Pub on the North Mall and said to her, ‘I’m going to kill you and that fool with you’ in reference to a man she was with.
Superintendent Mick Murray said that gardaí had approached Mr Collins to tell him to stay away from Ms Duffy but he failed to do so.
The court heard that the former couple had a ‘close relationship’ and had lived together for three years with Mr Collins’s parents. Mr Patrick Durcan, solicitor for the defendant said that when the spilt up, his client was devastated, and explained that the injured party was in another relationship and they were living together. However, Ms Duffy informed the court that she was living with her parents and not her partner.
Mr Durcan said his client was not criminally minded and came from a respected family and asked that the matter be dealt with without a criminal conviction.
Mr Collins gave an undertaking under oath that he would not have anymore contact with the injured party. He told Judge Mary Devins that he should have listened to the gardaí when they told him to stay away from the injured party.
He denied he was obsessed with Ms Duffy and explained that he was drinking heavily at the time and would send the texts when he was drunk.
A stone mason by trade Mr Collins said he was currently unemployed. He was told by Judge Devins that if he had a job he might not be obsessed with past relationships. She said that if he got a job and put Ms Duffy out of his ‘life and mind’, she would deal with the matter in a certain way.
Judge Devins remanded the defendant on bail to appear before the court on December 1, but told Ms Duffy that if he contacts her again she should contact the gardaí and gave gardaí liberty to re-enter the case.
