Laois man given suspended sentence for making death threats
Portlaoise Courthouse
A MAN was given a suspended prison sentence at Portlaoise District Court after admitting to making death threats and to distributing or publishing grossly offence or threatening material.
Kyle Kilduff (29) with addresses at Rathmiles, Portarlington and at John Street, Cashel, Co Tipperary had previously pleaded guilty to the offences at Rathmiles, Portarlington on 27 August last year and guilty to assault on 13 October last year at Dunnes Stores, Kyle Centre, Portlaoise.
The court had been told that on 27 August, Mr Kilduff sent 16 emails to a shared email account that threatened to kill or to cause serious injury to the recipient. He said the partner of the party for whom the emails were intended opened them and reported the issue to gardaí.
The court heard the types of messages sent included: “You’ll be executed if you don’t bow to the king of loyalty. Beg for forgiveness or you will die.” Defending solicitor Barry Fitzgerald said his client had known the people the emails had been sent to and that there had been a bit of background to the issue.
When the case resumed last week, Judge Andrew Gubbins was presented with a community service assessment, a probation report and a report from the Restorative Justice Programme.
Mr Fitzgerald said that for a few years his client had difficulties with intoxicants. He said his client knew the injured parties and had been in a good relationship with them until they had a falling out.
He also said that Mr Kilduff had faced homeless issues for a while and “went down the rocky road with drugs. But he’s changed now and is going to the gym regularly. It appeared that it was a one-off incident. The probation service recommends a probation supervision order for 12 months. He is in a much better place now and has fully engaged with the probation services. Homelessness is a big issue with him and I believe the probation services would be able to assist him with that. He’s been sober for the past year and hasn’t come to the attention of the gardaí.” Judge Gubbins said the emails were “quite sinister and caused the injured parties some fear,” but he was willing to give Mr Kilduff an opportunity before going on to convict him of making death threats, imposing a six-month custodial sentence, which he suspended for 12 months, and took the other two charges into account.
