A man has been remanded on bail after entering a last-minute plea of guilty to harassing his ex-partner and her parents over a four-year period.
The 42-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was due to go on trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday when he changed his plea.
He had denied all charges when arraigned before a jury panel on Tuesday, but was arraigned again on Wednesday and pleaded guilty.
The offences, contrary to Section 10 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997, were alleged to have happened on various dates between May 26th, 2018 and February 9th, 2021.
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He also pleaded guilty to harassing his ex-partner from February 9th, 2021 to December 15th, 2022 and to harassing her parents between February 10th, 2021 and August 26th, 2022.
Tom Creed SC, prosecuting, said the pleas were acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions. He applied for the man to be remanded on bail and thanked the jury for “their forbearance”.
The accused had been on bail with a condition to sign on twice a week at his local Garda station, but Conor Devalley SC, defending, succeeded in having this reduced to once a week.
Judge Helen Boyle reiterated that the accused should stay away from the injured parties and have no contact with them. He undertook to abide by the condition.
She ordered that the accused not be named in the media, as doing so would identify the victims in the case.
“Nothing should be contained in newspaper reports that would identify the parties because of (the danger of) revictimisation of the parties and the fact that there are children involved.”
Judge Boyle thanked the legal representatives for the progress they had made today in the case, which it was estimated would run for two weeks had it been contested.
