Jail term for breach of barring order

A WOMAN who was jailed for three years last month for dousing an 18-month-old toddler with petrol has been given a three-month jail term for breaching a barring order.

At Ennis District Court yesterday, Judge Aeneas McCarthy imposed the jail term on Majella McCarthy (26), Galway Road, Ennis, Co Clare, after she pleaded guilty to breaching a barring order on her family home at Miltown Malbay in west Clare on February 27th.

Five days later, McCarthy arrived back at her home where she poured petrol over her father after flying into a rage, before going to a car parked outside and dousing a baby girl and her mother with petrol.

At Limerick Circuit Court last month, Judge Seán Ó Donneabháin jailed McCarthy for three years after she was found guilty of three counts of assault causing harm. Judge Ó Donneabháin said McCarthy presented “a clear danger to the public”.

McCarthy suffers from what doctors described as an anti-social personality disorder.

In court yesterday, her solicitor, Tara Godfrey, said that last February-March was a time of significant crisis for her client. Ms Godfrey said McCarthy gave birth to a baby in January.

Three psychiatrists’ reports found that McCarthy did not have a psychiatric disorder and was fit to plead.

“From a professional point, I doubt if she is fit to plead,” Ms Godfrey said, adding that it was a very sad case in which McCarthy had shown significant behavioural problems since she was 16.

The solicitor said her client had endured long periods of homelessness, not from a lack of sympathy from her family or lack of support from various services.

Judge McCarthy imposed a three-month jail term from yesterday that would run concurrently with the three-year term. He struck out a charge against her of assaulting Garda Johanna Egan at Ennis District Court on March 13th, after he was told that Garda Egan was on sick leave and would not be able to give evidence.

Judge McCarthy also found McCarthy not guilty of not paying a €50 taxi fare to her home on February 27th.