‘NEIGHBOUR DESTROYED MY LIFE’
COURT TOLD OF WOMAN’S SIX YEARS OF HARASSMENT BY MAN BESOTTED WITH HER
A WOMAN has described in court how a well-known Enniscorthy man ‘destroyed’ her life as a result of harassing her for six years.
In a victim impact statement in the case of Donal Cullen, from Shingán, Enniscorthy, victim Jenny White said Cullen, a neighbour, had ‘destroyed my life, my life that I loved.’
Ms White went on to describe how the harassment had ‘destroyed my health, my peace of mind and my trust in people’.
Cullen was given a two-and-a-half year suspended prison sentence from Judge Cormac Quinn after pleading guilty to harassing Ms White between December 2013 and May, 2016.
In her statement Ms White said: ‘ The duration and severity of his continual and repeated harassment pecked away at my life. Subtly and slowly, until everything in my world changed drastically.’
The court heard how Cullen had written poetry to Ms White and began calling to her place of work after he became ‘ besotted’ with her.
AN Enniscorthy man who became besotted with his neighbour, posting poems in a local free newspaper, has received a two and a half year suspended prison sentence.
Donal Cullen (65), of Shingán, Milehouse Road, Enniscorthy, pleaded guilty before Judge Cormac Quinn at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court to harassing Jenny White between December 3, 2013 and May 19, 2016.
Ms Jenny White, in a Victim Impact statement which she read to the court said: ‘Harassment is the worst kind of thief, it steals from every aspect of your life, not just once, but over and over again.
‘ There is an old saying, ‘a tree is the strongest thing in the forest, but if a woodpecker takes a peck off the tree every day, it will certainly fall.
‘Donal Cullen is this woodpecker. The duration and severity of his continual and repeated harassment pecked away at my life. Subtlety and slowly until everything in my world changed drastically,’ she said.
Prosecuting Counsel Ms Sinead Gleeson told the court that on January 22 the defendant had entered a plea of guilty to harassment. The case was adjourned for a psychological report and a probation and welfare report.
Garda Sean O’Neill told the court that an investigation was carried out following a complaint of harassment from Jenny White. The harassment, he said, continued over a period of three years,
Ms White bought her home at 140 Shingán, Enniscorthy, where the defendant also lived.
Garda O’Neill said that when Ms White and her partner Jason O’Connor went away for a few days in 2013 she asked the accused to feed her goldfish. At a later date when they once again went away she asked the accused to once again feed the fish which he agreed to do. She later told gardai it was one of the worst decisions she ever made.
In July 2013, Garda O’Neill said the defendant asked Ms White and Mr O’Connor to attend his 60th birthday party but after that it all changed. He said that Ms White told of the defendant making efforts to speak to her and would meet her as she got out of her car. Ms White, he said, was becoming uncomfortable and did not engage.
Garda O’Neill told the court of poems started to appear in the local free paper the ‘Slaney News’, one as ‘Gentle Jenny’. He said that Ms White did not know of the poem until she was told in work, after which she became angry and upset by it.
Ms White, he said, had made it quite clear to the defendant that she had no interest in him, was in a relationship and very happy. However the defendant told her he was not going to accept this as he was in love with her, and that he had to father a child in this life. Over the next few months Cullen would ring
Ms White, said Garda O’Neill, had contacted the defendant’s sister, who called to her employment to speak to her. However, during this time, the defendant continued to contact Ms White by telephone messages, text messages, with the result she became uncomfortable entering or leaving her apartment, where the defendant would continue trying to engage in conversation with her.
The defendant, said Garda O’Neill, posted a further poem in the Slaney News titled ‘Lover Come to Me’ with a copy put through her letterbox. It was in October, 2016, that Ms White made a decision to move out of her apartment, going to live in her partner’s house in Gimont Avenue. While she had hoped contact would stop, a further poem was published in the Slaney News despite the fact she had contacted the editor, Mr Frank Corcoran, regarding the poems.
The defendant then started calling to her place of work but Ms White told him she want him to leave telling him she had nothing to say.
Yet another poem ‘I Apologise’ was published in the Slaney News, while the defendant approached Ms White with a copy of the poem saying he was sorry and would stop all of this.
However Garda O’Neill said on February 14, 2014, the defendant re-published the poem ‘Lover Come To Me’ while he also posted a Valentine’s Day Card. As a result of all of this, Garda O’Neill said that Ms White suffered significant stress which affected her health while she also had to disconnect her door bell. A further poem ‘Gentle Woman’ was published in the Slaney News.
Garda O’Neill also told the court of a further poem being published in the Slaney News titles ‘A Little White Car’ , while in October/November, 2014, the defendant called to her four times in one day wanting to talk to her about divorce proceedings. She told the defendant that this was a matter for his solicitor.
On September 2, 2015, a further poem was published in the Slaney News titled ‘Let Him Go’ at a time when her health was deteriorating which she believed was triggered by stress. The defendant, he said, had personal photographs of Ms White which he took from her Facebook Page and posted on his page.
Defence Counsel Noel Whelan (Instructed by McCartan O’Gorman, Solicitors) said that apart from ‘Gentle Jenny’ there was not a lot involved in the poems which one would recognise. When interviewed the defendant said some of the poems were about Jenny but some of them were not.
Mr. Whelan said it was clear the defendant developed a certain fixation on her and she also developed a fixation as to what he was going to do. The defendant, he said, had since moved out from his home and is living with his brother.
Ms White, having read her Victim Impact Statement to the court, begged the court to keep Cullen away from her.
Ms White denied to Mr Whelan that she had any contact by text with the defendant.
Judge Quinn said that the victim’s evidence relating to her illness is her opinion as there is no medical evidence.
Mr Whelan said it is an unusual case for a certain element of this offence is the persistence. ‘It has been a journey in the Probation and Welfare report and the Psychological report given the nature of the offence,’ said Mr Whelan. ‘He is clearly a person who has had difficulties with marriage breakdown. He worked as a taxi driver and had different relationships,’ said Mr. Whelan.
Judge Quinn said the evidence speaks for itself, while the accused had pleaded guilty and accepts the responsibility. He said this is a harassment charge with the aggravating factors being the nature of the harassment, the continued harassment and the affect it had on the victim. The defendant had shown remorse and apologised, he said.
Judge Quinn imposed a two and half year prison sentence, which he suspended in its entirety for five years on the defendant entering a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for five years. As a condition the defendant is not to reside in any premises in Shingán on Mile House Road, Enniscorthy.
The defendant, he said, is also not to communicate by any means with Ms White and not approach within half a kilometre of her place of residence. He is not to send text messages, make phone calls or post matters on social media. In relation to his tenancy at Shingán where he has property he is to get someone else to remove the property.
HARASSMENT IS THE WORST KIND OF THIEF, IT STEALS FROM EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE
– VICTIM JENNY WHITE