Former garda Paul Moody, who was jailed for coercive control and harassment, is now working as a prison barber and cutting the hair of inmates including Josef Puska behind bars.
Paul Moody(Image: Collins)
Former Garda Paul Moody has forged a new career behind bars – cutting hair for killer Josef Puska and other inmates as the prison landing barber.
Moody, 46, formerly of St Rapheals Manor, Celbridge, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty to harassment and coercive control earlier this week and was handed a six-year sentence with the final 15 months suspended on strict conditions. Dublin Circuit Court heard how he harassed his then partner, threatened to send intimate images to her employer and sent her abusive messages between March 2016 and November 2017.
A source said Moody, who works as a cleaner on the E2 landing of the Midlands Prison, Co Laois, has started to put his barbering skills to good use and has been trimming hair for other inmates on the E Division including Aishling Murphy’s killer. The source said: “Moody is still working away on the E2 wing as a cleaner. He has also become known as the barber of the wing and has been cutting inmates hairs.
Jozef Puska
“He has done haircuts for Josef Puska. It’s hard to believe that a former guard would be mixing with the likes of Puska but they are all there for the crimes they have committed and try and get along.
“A lot of the prisons are now offering barbering workshops, Moody must have done one as he’s very good at it.” The source added Moody has also trimmed down and has been taking a lot of fitness class.
They said: “He does spinning and boxercise classes and has slimmed down considerably. He looks a lot fitter than he appears in the file footage which has been shown on the TV lately.”
Nicola Hanney(Image: Liosa McNamara)
Moody was jailed in 2022 for three years and three months after pleading guilty to coercive control of Nicola Hanney, 45, with whom he was in a relationship with. In Ms Hanney’s case, He engaged in a four-year campaign of harassment, assaults, threats and coercive control.
In the case this week, the court heard how Moody continued to offend while the woman was in hospital pregnant, and after the birth of their child. He sent her 2,261 violent, abusive and threatening messages over a six- day period in March 2016.
While she was in hospital with his baby, Moody sent her a message stating: “I wish you were dead. I hope you bleed to death. I hope the baby dies.” The woman in question, who has not been named, said: “If someone had listened in 2017, Nicola [Ms Hanney] would have been spared”.
This injured party went to GSOC in December 2017 and made a statement in March 2018 and forwarded on a large amount ofmaterial once the investigation had begun. However, she didn’t receive any updates on developments until October 2020.
GSOC contacted her to tell her that Moody had been invited to an interview but did not attend in July 2019 as he was on work-related stress leave. In her victim impact statement, the woman said she was “met with silence” after making the complaint to GSOC.
She went on to say she felt “profound anger” Moody continued to serve – “wearing the uniform of protection” despite being an abuser behind closed doors. And she said a welfare call from GSOC on the day the thug was sentenced in 2022 for his crimes against Ms Hanney was like a “sledgehammer” but she went on to say the actions taken by the NBCI [National Bureau of Criminal Investigation] had “restored some of my faith”.
She also described how Moody had destroyed their baby’s nursery, before he “paced with a knife like a man possessed”. Judge Martin Nolan said the offending was “prolonged” and “extreme” and sentenced Moody to 6 years with the final 15 months suspended on strict conditions.
He had been remanded in custody following the end of his last sentence in December 2024. He was arrested in October 2023 for his latest case and was charged in July 2024.
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