Stalker threatened to kill
AN ABUSIVE boyfriend drove his car at his ex-partner and threatened to murder her, a court heard as he was sentenced for stalking her.
Richard McCarthy, 25, of Cardiff, threatened to set fire to the home of his former partner Bethan Furnish over the course of their turbulent relationship which was characterised by the defendant’s threatening and abusive behaviour.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court was told by prosecutor Ieaun Rees that McCarthy and Ms Furnish became an item in 2017, but a trip to Swansea in August last year began a downward spiral.
When the couple got to the hotel they were staying at, McCarthy’s mood changed when Ms Furnish received a text from her former partner’s cousin asking her to go on holiday.
After an argument, Ms Furnish left the room to drive back home to Cardiff but returned after realising she had left her phone.
When she got back to the room McCarthy, of Tarwick Drive, Trowbrige, Cardiff, refused her entry and was looking through her phone, and he threw it at the wall.
They decided to drive home but he insisted on driving the hire car home and stabbed the interior of the roof with the car keys, as well as kicking the car window.
He caused £1,100 damage, which Ms Furnish was liable for.
In another incident, McCarthy called Ms Furnish’s workplace and made a false allegation she was committing fraud, which was initially investigated but dismissed.
In November, McCarthy sent a number of angry and threatening text messages to Ms Furnish and sent a message to her mother saying: “So she will see I am not messing, I don’t give a f***.
“If she doesn’t answer me, I’m coming down to yours and causing murder.”
He later apologised, saying: “[Ms Furnish] makes me evil when she starts, you don’t realise how she gets to me.”
On another occasion when Ms Furnish was admitted to hospital, the defendant made various calls asking to speak to her and find out about her condition.
In December, Ms Furnish sent a message to McCarthy following an argument telling him she was ending the relationship, but he later turned up at her parents’ house and demanded to speak to her.
He became threatening and told her: “I will murder you if you don’t tell me who told you I cheated on you.”
The court heard that after they both got in a car together, he drove her around and hit her over the head before leaving her alone in a country lane.
He then came back and drove at her, and Ms Furnish dived out of the way.
She refused to get back in the car and McCarthy drove off, but she managed to get a lift from a woman who took her back to her parents’ house.
Matters came to a head in February when McCarthy threatened Ms Furnish about a trip she was making with a friend to London.
The next day he phoned Ms Furnish’s mother and said: “I am going to come down there and light the street up and every car in it. I am going to set alight to your house.”
He phoned back and spoke to Ms Furnish’s father who told McCarthy to stop calling and to leave his family alone but after the defendant made a further threat, he called the police.
When McCarthy was arrested, he denied making threats to Ms Furnish and her family, and claimed she was