Woman left Castlebar shop assistant ‘terrified’

SENTENCE Judge Fiona Lydon handed down a suspended sentence to a woman who intimidated a Castlebar shop assistant.

A woman left a Castlebar shop assistant ‘terrified’ and ‘shaking’ with fear due to her aggressive behaviour.
Castlebar District Court heard that Winnie McDonagh (36) of 10 Seaview Park, Newport, refused to leave the shop when requested to do so.
She appeared before last week’s court charged with threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour towards Aoibhín Jordan, a shop assistant at Best Price Beauty, Castlebar.
Ms Jordan (20) told the court that she was working on August 24, 2018, when Winnie McDonagh entered the shop with three young girls. Ms Jordan was previously informed by management that Ms McDonagh was ‘barred from all Stauntons’ shops’, so asked her to leave.
The court heard Ms McDonagh refused and became ‘aggressive’, which led to Ms Jordan ringing a friend, Amy Burke, who was working in a nearby shop for help. After Ms Burke came down to help, Ms McDonagh then left the shop, but told Ms Jordan she would be back later.
Ms Jordan said she did not take much notice at the time but after returning from her lunch she saw Ms McDonagh, accompanied by Rose, Una and Ellen McDonagh, enter the shop again. Again Ms Jordan asked Ms McDonagh to leave, but she refused and started ‘picking up things and throwing them down’ as Ms Jordan attended to customers, before their noise volumes became ‘more heated’ and ‘very intimidating’.
Ms Jordan said she was unsuccessful in calling for help, but eventually Ms McDonagh left the shop, where she stayed outside and began making loud comments about Ms Jordan’s appearance and accusing her of discriminating against members of the Traveling community.
Ms Jordan denied this and said she was ‘shaking’ with fear at the time.
Amy Burke told the court that after receiving a call from Ms Jordan, she ran up to the premises immediately and informed Ms McDonagh that she was barred. Ms Burke said that Ms McDonagh was ‘shouting up close to my face’ in an aggressive manner and also asked Ms Jordan to write her name on a piece of paper and give it to her.
Amy Robinson, who was working in another nearby shop, told the court that she also received a phone call from Ms Jordan regarding the incident and when she arrived after Ms McDonagh had left, found Ms Jordan ‘very shook’, ‘panicky and frightened’ and in tears over the incident.

‘See you in court’
Garda Michael Toland told the court that he received a call later on that evening regarding the incident, and when he took an official statement from Ms Jordan three days later, she was still visibly upset.
He said he received subsequent statements from Ms Burke and Ms Robinson and when he called to the home of Ms McDonagh for a statement, she declined and said, ‘See you in court’.
Ms McDonagh was subsequently arrested and charged.
Defending solicitor, Olive Burke questioned Ms Jordan as to why she didn’t ring the gardaí immediately, to which she said she was ‘in shock’ and ‘didn’t know what to do’.
Ms McDonagh denied being aggressive and questioned as to why there was no CCTV evidence of the incident. She said she ‘doesn’t know if I was in the shop’ and that she wasn’t aware of any incident on that day.
Inspector David Tiernan put it to Ms McDonagh that there were three witnesses who swore under oath that she was being threatening and abusive in the shop on the day of the incident.
She denied this and said: “The three said I was very violent. If someone was being ‘bould’ in the shop, how come the guards were not called straight away?”

‘Constantly looking over my shoulder’
Defending solicitor Ms Bourke said her client – who has over 100 previous convictions, mostly for theft – was going through a difficult period in her life at the time of the incident and asked Judge Fiona Lydon to consider a probation report.
She also highlighted how there was no CCTV of the incident and Ms McDonagh was unaware she was barred from the shop at the time.
However, Judge Lydon agreed that Ms McDonagh’s actions were in breach of the section six of the Public Order Act.
In quoting Ms Jordan’s victim impact statement, she said the victim is now ‘constantly looking over her shoulder for you and your friends when she is in town’ and that she is left ‘terrified’ of meeting them again after the incident.
Judge Lydon sentenced Ms McDonagh to a one-month prison sentence, but suspended it for two years, warning her she will be closely monitoring her behaviour moving forward.