Woman in fear after threats to her life

CLOGHERHEAD MAN (23) TOLD BY JUDGE TO ‘SORT YOURSELF OUT’ AND ‘COP ON’

A MAN who used webtext and Snapchat to send messages to his ex-partner threatening to kill her has been given a three months suspended sentence.

Sam Lyster (23) was warned by a judge if he ‘even looks crooked’ at her again he will go to jail.

Lyster sent his ex-partner a message on November 1st last year via Snapchat, contravening a protection order, stating ‘If you report me I’ll kill you and bring a shitstorm down on you and your family,’ Drogheda District Court heard.

Within two weeks he then sent her a message via webtext stating ‘ Hi huni, I hope I see you in a church for Christmas, you c**t’

Lyster, of Castleview in Clogherhead, pleaded guilty to three counts of sending messages, contravening a protection order which was in place, contrary to Section 17 (1) of the Domestic Violence Act on dates in November 2016.

The victim told the court she was put in fear because of the threats to her life.

“I had to leave work due to the anxiety of it all,” she told Judge Flann Brennan. “I want him to leave me alone. When I walked into court today he said ‘ There’s that yolk.’ I am not a yolk,” she said.

Disputing that he called her a yolk, Lyster claimed he didn’t even make eye contact with her in court but on his solicitor Dermot Monahan’s instructions he apologised how she interpreted it.

He gave the court the undertaking that he would not send her any more text messages.

Mr Monahan said Lyster suffers from stress disorder and has to learn he cannot be inappropriate to her as they have a child together.

Sentencing Lyster to a suspended sentence, Judge Brennan said ‘It’s very difficult to deal with people who have no respect for the court or other people.’

He told Lyster to ‘sort yourself out, cop on and learn to live peacefully without threatening people.’‘If you look crooked at her you’ll go to jail,’ Judge Brennanwarned Lyster.