Teacher guilty of ‘vile’ letters

JUDGE HANDS DOWN SUSPENDED SENTENCE TO FERNS WOMAN

A 51-YEAR-OLD qualified school teacher from Ferns has been given a suspended five-month prison term after subjecting her husband’s sister-in-law to a campaign of disturbing and stressful letters over a four-year period.

Sarah O’Rourke, Booladrum, Ferns, appeared before Judge Brian O’Shea at a sitting of Wexford District Court on Thursday, June 4.

The judge concluded that the effect of the anonymous, hand-written letters had been life-changing for the victim, Tessie O’Rourke.

The court heard that the women reside ‘a couple of fields’ away from each other and that both their husbands work together regularly.

The judge said the nasty, mean-spirited nature of the letters was apparent. He said they were devised by someone who knew what she was doing and the effect it was causing.

The court heard Sarah O’Rourke was jealous of her neighbour’s

AN APOLOGY offered by the woman who subjected her husband’s sister-in-law to a campaign of disturbing and stressful letters was rejected by the victim.

After reading the unwelcome correspondence, Judge Brian O’Shea sentenced 51-year-old Sarah O’Rourke, Booladrum, Ferns, to five months’ imprisonment.

However, sitting at the District Court in Wexford on Thursday, June 4, he decided to suspend this jail term after reading psychiatric and probation reports on the defendant.

He concluded that the effect of the anonymous handwritten letters sent over a period of four years had been life-changing for Tessie O’Rourke, the target of the campaign.

Sarah O’Rourke resides just a couple of fields away from the complainant and the women’s husbands regularly work together on family farmland.

Both women were in court where Tessie O’Rourke gave tearful victim impact evidence of the massive impact of what had happened.

Detective Garda Darren Coleman told how it was in March of last year that Tessie O’Rourke made a statement of complaint about receiving a large amount of letters.

They were unsigned, disturbing and stressful. She told how she had burned many of them and that she had no idea who was sending them.

There were up to 40 of them, some sent to her place of work or her friends, labelling her as cheap. They included a press cutting with a picture of her attending a GAA club night, insulting her dress sense and insulting the people she was with that evening.

The letters were all handwritten in print format.

Shortly after leaving the barracks, the complainant returned to tell the gardaí that a further letter in the series had been received.

It had been posted in Enniscorthy and the culprit was identified using CCTV.

When arrested on April 10 last year, Sarah O’Rourke immediately accepted that the contents of the letters were hurtful and vile.

She made full admissions, telling officers that she had acted out of jealousy of her neighbour’s character and her life.

She had no previous convictions and had never otherwise come to the attention of the gardaí, before or since.

Solicitor Ed King described his client as married and a professional, who was ashamed of what she did.

In the witness box, a clearly emotional Tessie

O’Rourke told how what occurred had a massive effect on her job as a hairdresser.

She had been known as a bubbly person but then she took to keeping the blinds down in her home as every part of her life was nit-picked.

The harassment had affected her six daughters too, she told the court.

‘I didn’t realise that she did not like me to that extent,’ commented Tessie, adding that she cannot now look the other woman in the face.

A letter of apology was written by Sarah in February but was only seen by her for the first time on the day of the court hearing.

‘It’s the first thing she has put her name to in ten years,’ she commented, rejecting the apology.

Accused Sarah O’Rourke also entered the witness box, where she acknowledged that the letters she sent were unacceptable.

She reckoned that she has not gone on a night out with the complainant in the past 18 years.

Mr King said that his client was mother of four daughters and that there was a low risk of her re-offending. He noted how she and the injured party were living in close proximity and acknowledged the trauma caused by the harassment.

He said Sarah O’Rourke accepted that she had done something dreadful and that she now felt shame.

Judge Brian O’Shea decided he would read the letters and reports over lunch.

When he returned to the bench, he said that the matter was at the upper end of gravity of cases considered in the District Court.

The nasty, mean-spirited, anonymous nature of the letters was apparent. The offences were repeated and the perpetrator knew the upset that was being caused, he said.

The fact that the letters were written by hand suggested a measure of pre-meditation.

Their life changing effect on Tessie O’Rourke’s personality was clear to anyone who saw her in the witness box, the judge suggested.

They had been devised by someone who was a qualified school teacher, who knew what she was doing and the effect she was having.

The court noted how the episode had an impact on the defendant’s own mental health, culminating in suicide ideation. She was right to be ashamed and embarrassed, he said.

It seemed, according to the psychiatric report, that a lack of self-worth was at the root of actions which left the victim less confident and introverted.

The harassment was appalling behaviour and an eight-month jail sentence was appropriate.

However, in view of the guilty plea and other factors, the judge reduced the tariff to five months.

As he felt that no proper function would be served by incarcerating Mrs O’Rourke, the term was suspended for two years.

During that time, he ordered her to have no unsolicited contact with the complainant.