A Waterford landlord and his son have had their sentences suspended for blackmailing and intimidation of a former tenant in their appeal case.
John Guiry (50) and his son John Frampton (28), of Ballygarron, Kilmeaden, received prison sentences for intimidation and coercion last March.
Guiry received a four-month sentence for coercion. Frampton received an eight-month sentence for making an unwarranted demand, with menaces, of the woman to immediately vacate her family home.
The woman claimed Guiry said he wanted her out by May 5th, 2024, or he would be “sending people” to the property.
On May 2nd, 2024, five hooded men approached her at the property. One man, understood to be Frampton, threatened to kill her if she didn’t leave.
The encounter left the woman and her teenage daughter “terrified”, the court heard.
On July 23rd, State Solicitor Frank Hutchinson outlined the facts of the case in court in Waterford before Judge Sarah Berkeley.
The court heard that May 2nd, 2024, a woman living in a rented property in Larchville reported to the Garda that
a gang of five men had arrived to her home, dressed all in black with their hoods up and tied.
Three men stood at the wall of the front garden while another man approached the woman and made threats to kill her and “everyone in the house” if she didn’t leave the property.
He told her: “You’ve had plenty of notice to get the f**k out of here. I’ll be back and kill you and everyone in the house.”
The women pointed to the packed boxes in the house and said she was “getting ready to go”.
The hooded man said : “You better go or I will be back.”
The woman’s teenage daughter was inside the house at the time of the encounter and witnessed the threats. She took a photo of the men and the vehicle they used.
The vehicle was later identified as belonging to Frampton.
The woman and daughter recognised the man making the threats as their landlord’s son, based on his appearance.
The victim told gardaí that she had been in a dispute with her landlord Guiry over moving out of the property and had gone through proceedings with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
The RTB said the termination notice as invalid and ordered the woman to be paid €4,500 in damages.
Mairead Deevy BL represented father and son in their appeal.
Ms Deevy said that the accused offered their apologies to the victim and her family and “had written letters to that effect”.
Guiry told gardaí he was running on the Waterford Greenway at the time of the incident.
Defence counsel told the court the tenant had been renting the property since 2013. In 2023, Guiry spoke to her about moving out of the property because his own daughter “fell pregnant” and needed a place to live.
Ms Deevy said: “The tenant, quite correctly, didn’t want to go as rent was €750.”
Over the following months, the woman tried to find other accommodation but failed to secure a new home.
The termination notice issued by Guiry was deemed invalid by the RTB.
Ms Deevy said that meant Guiry would have to “start the process all over again”.
“Rather than go through the legal means, they took the law into their own hands.”
The defence presented photos taken of the house in the aftermath in the event, which purportedly showed the property as being left in a “poor state” after the incident. Judge Berkeley was also provided character references for the defendants.
Ms Deevy later said: “I can only say it was a moment of madness.”
Judge Berkeley said: “Yes the house was left in a fairly bad state but there was no excuse for what happened.”
The judge suspended both sentences for 12 months and ordered them to pay €4,500 to the victim.
“I think at this stage they’ve learned not to take the law into their own hands,” the judge said.
