A prisoner accused of making threats to kill or cause serious harm to a fellow inmate and a prison officer at Limerick Prison told gardaí that while she did make threats to rape and sexually assault them, she never meant it and never intended to act on the threats.
Transgender woman Barbie Kardashian, 22, said the threats were made in the heat of the moment, and amid frustration and anger at being falsely accused of leaving the female showers in the prison in an unhygienic state.
On the third day of the trial at Limerick Circuit Court, the jury of seven women and five men are hearing evidence of statements Barbie Kardashian gave to gardaí at Roxboro garda station on 29 May 2023.
She was arrested and questioned about the threats that she made to fellow inmate Tegan McGhee and to prison officer Róisín Linnane that she would rape and sexually molest them.
She confirmed to gardaí that she did make the threats, but that she never intended to carry them out.
Barbie Kardashian said there was no way anyone could believe the threats as she could not possibly carry them out because she was isolated completely from other prisoners and not allowed to mix with them.
She said the threats to use sexual violence against the two women came against frustration and anger at false rumours among other prisoners and staff that she did not clean the showers after using them and that she left them in an unhygienic state.
Barbie Kardashian said she used the threat of sexual violence because she had a very traumatic childhood in which she was raped and sexually abused many times.
In her statement to gardaí, she accepted her threats were disproportionate and an unjustified response to the rumours circulating about her, but that they were made in a fit of rage and she had no intention of carrying them out.
She said her isolation in prison, being locked up 22 hours a day for the past four years, had a deep emotional and psychological impact on her and that she reacted in an unjustified way, but that she did not mean it.
