A MAN who placed a ‘widow’s curse’ on a female garda after she stopped him on the road last May has been jailed for eight months.
According to the Irish Independent, Judge Patrick Durcan opted to impose the prison sentence on 28-year-old Martin Joyce after learning of the “truly chilling” details behind the “torrent of abuse” the defendant directed at Garda Elizabeth McDonagh.
Garda McDonagh was the subject of a volley of abuse from Joyce after he was pulled over on May 19th in the Beechpark area of Ennis in County Clare.
According to the Judge, when McDonagh failed to react to Joyce’s abusive language, he opted to impose a curse on the Garda officer, going into the kind detail he said was of a
“lurid, vivid and appalling nature”.
Speaking from the witness box in quotes carried by the Independent, McDonagh detailed the curse Joyce recounted to her during their encounter:
“Judge, Mr Joyce told me ‘I am putting a curse on you. I will light a candle that your family will die, and you will suffer grief in the next 12 months.
“’When it happens, I will take pictures and send them to you and put them up for everyone to see. You will see within 12 months that your family or someone belonged to you will be dead.
“’I am going to light a candle to give you the curse and I will get my mother to give you the widow's curse and they will all be dying belonged to you.’"
Commenting on the case the judge argued that the comments made the case a unique and notably upsetting one for the Garda involved.
Joyce was handed a five-month prison term for obstructing garda along with a three-month sentence for driving without insurance.
He also imposed the 28-year-old with a 10-week prison term for verbal abuse with all three sentences set to run concurrently.
According to the report, Joyce’s solicitor Tara Godrey was instructed to apologise to McDonagh for the incident.
