Harassment case may be ‘too serious’ for the District Court
JUDGE ADJOURNS CASE TO ALLOW FOR CONSULTATION WITH DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTION
THE hearing of a case alleging harassment of a neighbour by a 64-year-old Enniscorthy man stopped after District Judge John Cheatle ruled that it might be too serious to be disposed of in the District Court.
The judge called a halt after listening to more than an hour of testimony against Donal Cullen of 132 Shingán, Milehouse Road, Enniscorthy.
The evidence from complainant Jennifer White was that her health broke down in the face of constant attention from a man old enough to be her father.
She spoke of how, what she called, his silly infatuation was conducted at first through poems published in the ‘Slaney News’ free-sheet and then on Facebook.
The defendant stood charged with harassing Ms White on various dates from September of 2013 to May of 2016, with the complainant telling the judge that there was lull while Cullen took part in the filming of ‘Brooklyn’ as an extra.
She traced the unwanted attention back to when she asked Cullen to look after her goldfish Moby while she was out of the country with her partner.
The accused was represented by barrister Jordan Fletcher who indicated that the allegations were fully contested.
Jennifer White was sworn in to tell the court that she was the owner of Apartment 140 in Shingán, which was let out to tenants during 2010.
She first became aware of the man in nearby Apartment 132 during the big snow of that year when the pipes were frozen solid in her flat and he helped out.
She gave him a bag of cat food by way of thanks.
There was no contact in 2011 and 2012, Ms White recalled, though she had moved back to Shingán during 2011.
Around the same time, she started to date Jason O’Connor who had a relative with cancer living in England.
In May of 2013, the couple went to visit the relative, so Donal Cullen was asked to look after Moby, the long-lived goldfish that will be 22 years old later this year.
The accused was given some chocolates to mark her appreciation.
The couple went away again later that summer and once more the man in Number 132 attended to Moby, this time receiving a miniature Beatles guitar as a token of gratitude.
Ms White went with O’Connor to Cullen’s 60th birthday party in July of 2013 but her evidence was that her neighbour was already trying to get too friendly.
She returned from another visit to the UK in September to be greeted at her place of work as a citizens advice officer by her boss Mary Carroll.
‘You’re famous,’ said Ms Carroll, showing her a poem called ‘Gentle Jenny’ which appeared in the latest edition of ‘Slaney News’.
The complainant reckoned this was the first of 11 poems which appeared in the free-sheet.
Her response was to go to Cullen and ask him what he was playing at.
She recalled his response as being: ‘At this stage in my life, I am not going to hide my feelings. I have fallen in love with you.’
She told Judge Cheatle that she could not have made it clearer that the attention was unwanted and she was committed to her relationship with Jason O’Connor.
His response, she said, was he did not want to leave the earth without fathering a child.
‘It was crazy. It was a ridiculous infatuation,’ said the complainant.
She spoke to the defendant’s sister Christine Cullen and asked her to get Donal to stop, but he did not stop.
Ms White told how he was always around her apartment or he was in his dressing gown sweeping the pavement outside the apartments when she was going to work.
Another poem, this one called ‘Lover Come to Me’ appeared that October. A copy of the relevant issue of ‘Slaney News’ was handed up to the judge.
O’Connor then persuaded his partner to come and stay with him for a while at his house in Gimont Avenue.
In November, the paper appeared with another poem ‘Table for One’. The witness felt this was a reference to the fact that she was not around anymore.
Her partner suggested that it was a silly infatuation and that it would die down.
She said Cullen apologised for his behaviour and a poem called ‘I Apologise’ was next in the series.
However, she found that he was walking past her office when she felt he had no reason to be there. Ms Carroll advised her to ignore him. In January of 2014, the couple went to England once more and Ms White received a text from Donal Cullen telling her that he had washed her car and watered her plants while she was away.
‘I was devastated,’ she said in the witness box.
Further poems included ‘Little White Car’ and the complainant confirmed that she drives a white Opel Corsa.
In October of that year, he arrived at the citizens advice office and told her he wanted assistance with a divorce.
He wanted to know if the woman could come after him if he came into money.
She explained to him that this was not within her remit and she was not going to help him.
She cried as she told the judge: ‘This has taken over my entire life. This is never going to stop. I want to be able to walk around my car without this man staring at me.’
She complained that he had never shown any remorse.
She told how he obtained a smart phone in August 2014 and alleged that the harassment then continued on social media.
He came to the office and showed her the phone.
The ‘Gentle Jenny’ poem appeared on Facebook.
In the months which followed she said he posted a picture of the miniature Beatles guitar.
He put up a picture of James Bond – ‘To JW with Love’ - and wrote that 007 was the number of kisses he would give her.
She told defence counsel that the harassment went on for three or four years and that Cullen had to be the one responsible, not someone impersonating Mr Fletcher’s client.
At one stage in his social media posting he referred to living with Moby.
He would put out one pair or underpants out on the washing line.
‘It never seemed to end,’ said Ms White.
She recalled that Cullen would apologise and stop for a while. The harassment stopped too while he was involved as an extra on ‘Brooklyn’.
Then she told how her body broke out in blisters in January of 2016.
At first allergies were suspected but she was diagnosed instead with an auto-immune condition brought on by stress.
She believed that the activities of Donal Cullen lay at the root of her condition.
‘My body was attacking itself,’ she said. ‘My home was no longer my sanctuary.’
At one stage she was rushed to hospital in Dublin with breathing difficulties.
She said that the blisters covered up to 60 per cent of her body and described them as being like maggots under her skin.
The judge brought her stint in the witness box to an end as he stopped the proceedings.
He said that if the allegations made by Jennifer White were substantiated then the matter was too serious to be disposed of in the District Court.
He adjourned to allow consultations with the DPP and preparation of a book of evidence.
Bail was granted to the defendant and counsel suggested that an application may be made to move any Circuit Court hearing out of County Wexford.