A man who threatened to burn the mother and brother of murdered Cork student Cameron Blair has been jailed for two years.
46-year-old Noel Barry, of Cherry Tree Road, in Togher, was sentenced before Cork Circuit Criminal Court having pleaded guilty to three charges including threatening to kill Kathy Blair and her son Alan on September 2020 in the course of a mobile phone call.
In her victim impact statement to the court, Mrs. Blair said that what Barry subjected them to was "cruelty beyond belief".
She said the phone was on loud speaker and when she heard the threat against Alan and she thought she was going to collapse, feeling physically sick thinking she could "lose her remaining son".
"As a mother I felt like a failure for not being able to protect my child against such horror. I often lie awake at night and vividly remember that call.
"It is impossible to unhear what Noel Barry said. How could you?" she said.
Investigating Garda Inspector Daniel Coholan told Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin that Barry rang Cameron Blair's father on his mobile phone just before 11pm on 4 September last.
Barry warned Mr Blair that he'd "better be standing beside your wife and other son with a fire extinguisher because they will be burned at the petrol station. Your family will never be safe for 13 years. Sorry for your son's loss... but don't f**king threaten a republican when you're a loyalist, alright".
Inspector Coholan told the court that when arrested, Barry denied he had threatened the family and claimed he was the one who had been threatened, a claim he later acknowledged was untrue.
The court was told he showed no remorse until several weeks later after he was charged.
Defence barrister Sinead Behan said her client was deeply remorseful, that he had a long-standing drink problem which had never been addressed.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Sentencing Barry to three years in prison, with the final year suspended, Judge Ó Donnabháin said this was "an incomprehensible crime" and a "crime of callous cruelty".
"To contact this family who had already suffered huge trauma to their lives with the murder of their beloved son was to cause the maximum pain to vulnerable people."
Judge Ó Donnabhain also ordered that Barry have no contact with the victims or members of the victims family for a period of five years from the date of his release from prison on each charge.
20-year-old Cameron Blair died after he was stabbed in the neck at a house party on the Bandon Road in Cork by a seventeen year old juvenile who has since been jailed for life.
The Central Criminal Court heard at the time that Mr Blair had been attending a party and was acting as "a peacemaker" between those in the house and another group seeking re-entry when he was fatally stabbed in the neck.
