Woman guilty of breach of safety order

JUGDE Gerard Haughton refused to believe defendant Helen Murphy, (48), of 10 St Aidan’s Villas, Enniscorthy, when she denied contravening a safety order at 175 Shingan, Milehouse, Enniscorthy, on March 30 last.

Jason Murphy, who took out the safety order in November 2015, said she called to his house on March 30 and demanded to be let in.

He called the gardaí, but she was gone when they arrived.

Her solicitor Lana Doherty put it to him her client would say she wasn’t at the house that evening, and had never been at the house.

He insisted she did call, and also called with their son on a previous occasion, while drunk, saying she needed a spare key for their former home. He said gardaí brought her home, and there would be a record of this.

Garda Vincent Downes told the court he called to the house at Shingan at 9.40 p.m. on March 30. He searched the vicinity but didn’t find her.

When Helen Murphy took to the stand, Judge Haughton explained to her the seriousness of perjury, and that if she denied calling to the house on the previous occasion, and gardaí then turned out to have a record of such an incident, that she could be committing an offence.

She took time to consult her solicitor, and then told the court that she now remembered she went to the house previously to get a key, but denied going there on March 30.

She said she kept a diary, and knew she was staying with her aunt on March 30 because her house had flooded seven times.

She said she had a cross safety order against Jason Murphy. She believed her husband was doing this because he wanted full custody of their son who is currently living with her brother.

She said this was because she’d had a mental breakdown, but she has now recovered.

Judge Haughton said he didn’t believe her evidence at all. He said she had instructed her solicitor that she had never been at the house, and then remembered that she had. ‘So what Mr Murphy says is true,’ he said. He also found it extraordinary that she keeps a diary but didn’t bring it to court.

He convicted her, and was told she had three previous convictions, including one for breaching a protection order.

He remanded her on continuing bail until February 1 for a probation report.