A DOCTORAL student charged with harassment after he sent e-mails to academic staff at Maynooth NUI which spoke of the Virginia Tech massacre in which 32 people died told a court he was “a child of God”.
“I will never be violent to anyone on Earth because I am a child of God,” Adeniyi Adekoya (42) told Judge Gerard Griffin at his trial in Naas Circuit Court. Mr Adekoya is representing himself, and pleads not guilty to four charges of harassment.
The father of four was arrested at his home at Earlsfort Court, Lucan, Co Dublin, on April 3rd, 2008, by Sgt Paul Reilly, who was a detective garda at the time. Mr Adekoya was taken to Naas Garda station, where he was questioned by Sgt Reilly and Garda Kieran Shiels.
In direct evidence to Dan Boland SC, prosecuting, Sgt Reilly said Mr Adekoya was arrested on foot of four written complaints from faculty members at NUI Maynooth regarding e-mails they had received.
“I don’t understand who I harassed,” Mr Adekoya told the arresting officer. In custody, Mr Adekoya was shown several e-mails, which he acknowledged he had sent, but denied he intended to threaten or intimidate anyone.
He told the gardaí he had given up his job after he was accepted as a PhD student at NUI Maynooth, but experienced financial difficulties. He said his supervisor missed several meetings with him, and he was unable to obtain software he needed in order to do statistical analysis for his thesis.
In his first e-mail, sent on July 6th, 2007, Mr Adekoya referred to “that ugly incident that occurred in Virginia Tech USA.”
When asked by the gardaí what he meant when he wrote “academically you are a dead man walking” to a faculty member, Mr Adekoya said the staff member’s position “was untenable because he victimised me”. Garda Reilly said there were also references to “judgment day” in the e-mails.
When he asked Mr Adekoya if he could see how someone might see these phrases and be alarmed, he replied: “I refused to take the law into my own hands. I leave God to judge.”
Mr Adekoya put it to Sgt Reilly, while cross-examining the officer, that the garda told him to “shut up” several times during his arrest. “Under no circumstances did I speak to this man in this way,” Sgt Reilly told the judge.
The court adjourned to allow Mr Adekoya to review a copy of the video taken during his questioning in Garda custody. The trial resumes today.