Courts

Man (31) who made ‘absolutely vile and repugnant’ threats to garda jailed

Seán Taaffe, from Ballymahon, headbutted officer who he was previously jailed for making threats to

In a victim impact statement, Garda Keith O’Brien said Seán Taaffe needs to 'accept his mistakes are what led to him being arrested and leave my family out of it'. Photograph: Alan Betson

Fri Jan 19 2024 - 12:16

A Co Longford man who threatened to burn down a garda’s house while his family was inside and to rape the officer’s wife and children has been jailed.

Seán Taaffe (31), of St Matthews Park, Ballymahon, was previously jailed after making similar threats to the same garda in 2021.

Longford Circuit Court heard that gardaí were called to a public order incident in Lanesboro on March 5th last following the theft of a packet of cigarettes from a shop. Sgt Philip O’Byrne described how the interaction between Garda Keith O’Brien and Taaffe escalated from public order to personal threats to the garda and his family to Section 3 assault.

On seeing Garda O’Brien, Taaffe shouted, in reference to his previous conviction related to him: “You, you b****rd, you got me locked up for 18 months”.

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He then made threats including “I’ll burn your house to the ground with your wife and kids in it”, “I will rape your wife and kids” and “I will burn Ballymahon Garda station with you in it”.

Taaffe later attempted to bite Garda O’Brien and headbutted him, resulting in the garda having headaches which lasted for 24 hours.

When questioned after being declared fit by a doctor, Taaffe said he had consumed two bottles of whiskey since the previous evening and “injected coke”. He said he could not remember any of the altercation and was “disgusted with myself”.

In a victim impact statement, Garda O’Brien said his wife questioned if Taaffe would be capable of carrying out his threats. While his wife was also a member of the force and had “a thick skin”, she took the threats very seriously.

“He needs to accept his mistakes are what led to him being arrested and leave my family out of it,” he said.

Taaffe’s letter of apology stated that he turned to drink and drugs when his children moved to England in January 2021. They had since returned to Ireland and he had met a woman last year who he hopes to build a future with.

Judge Kenneth Connolly said the threats made were “absolutely vile and repugnant in nature”. He noted that many of Taaffe’s previous convictions took place before his children moved to England and his actions could not therefore be attributed to that.

He said his “greatest regret” was that he was limited to sentencing Taaffe for the Section 3 assault only as he had pleaded guilty to it and the State decided not to proceed with the other charges. “Gardaí don’t have a choice, they have to deal with whatever arises and they should receive the utmost respect for that.”

He acknowledged Taaffe’s apology and said he did not want to be “mean-spirited” but that it sounded like “self-focused remorse rather than an apology to Garda O’Brien”. He sentenced him to 26 months with the final eight months suspended.

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