Defence seeks to prevent garda accused of threating to kill wife being named

A defence application to prevent the media publishing the name of a garda who is facing trial for allegedly threatening to kill his wife has been adjourned to be dealt with by the trial judge.

The Dublin-based officer (43) is charged with threatening to kill or cause serious harm to his then wife on dates in October 2012. He is also charged with coercing her at the same address outside Dublin on the same dates.

At a District Court hearing last July, Judge Paula Murphy made a temporary gagging order preventing the publication of the defendant’s name. Judge Murphy said she was restricting the reporting until such time that the full facts of the issue were put before the circuit court.

That same month, Breffni Gordon BL, defending, told Judge Melanie Greally at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that he was asking the court to restrict the publication of his client’s name until the trial when the “the matter can be thoroughly explored” by the trial judge.

He said there had been some reporting of the matter to date. He said his application was for the continuation of the restrictions imposed by Judge Murphy.

Judge Greally heard some argument on the matter and adjourned the case for mention to Wednesday for a full hearing.

Dean Kelly BL, prosecuting, told Judge Elma Sheahan on Wednesday that the State is now not opposed to the application regarding the publication of the garda’s name to be held over to be argued before the trial judge if necessary.

A trial date has been set for April 4th, 2022 with a pre-trial date set for December 16th, 2021.