A former garda who physically and psychologically abused and terrorised his former partner and the mother of his child in a prolonged, repeated and controlling manner over a number of years has been jailed for four years and nine months.
Paul Moody pleaded guilty to harassment and coercion offences, which he committed against another woman before his attacks on Nicola Hanney, for which he has already served a three-year sentence.
Moody sent the woman 2,261 violent, threatening and abusive messages over a six-day period in March 2016.
He also paced the house they shared with a knife in his hand "like a man possessed" and while she was pregnant with their baby in hospital.
He also took her passport.
He turned up and whispered abuse and threats into her ear, including telling her he hoped she would bleed to death.
"I hope you lose moo and die in the process," he told her. Moo was the name for the unborn baby.
Another patient in the nearby bed rang the call button and told the nurse to "get him out of there, I don't know what he's doing to her in there".
He was also aggressive towards medical staff and had to be barred from the hospital. The victim changed her next of kin from him to her mother the next day.
He complained that it was the week of his birthday and that he did not have anyone to buy him a cake.
"I wish you were dead," he told her, "I hope you bleed to death. I hope the baby dies".
He became obsessed with the woman's prior relationships and called her all sorts of abusive names including "slag" and "whore".
He ripped up her clothes and threw her possessions out of their room.
Moody set up a number of false email accounts and sent intimate images of the woman with her former husband to a number of people, including to her place of work.
The woman had a brother in the US and Moody contacted the US Embassy telling them her former husband was a terrorist to prevent her and her mother from getting a visa.
"I'm in receipt of information about someone applying for an ESTA," he wrote to the embassy at around 3.53am one morning, "I can provide documentation of the marriage and name change".
He implied the woman’s former husband had spent time in Chinese prison which was not true.
After he sent the email he messaged the victim.
"That’s done, that email has been sent, no way you're going," he said.
"I gave you everything, not enough, imagine never getting to the states again," he added.
Moody compiled a 12 page dossier against the woman "should anything happen, it'll all come out," he messaged her.
"You’ve 5 min to tell me the complete truth before this email goes to your work and house," he said. Attached to the email he wrote "Oh my god look at this I guess I cant keep my legs closed".
"On my daughters life, you ever lie to me, I swear I’ll walk out on you," he messaged her.
"I’m a good f*cking bloke. I deserve to be appreciated. I don’t give a flying f*ck about what your mother thinks or your friends. I honestly can’t wait to get away. You live in a fantasy dreamland, its quite sad," he said.
He sent numerous abusive, insulting and threatening messages, including about the victim’s mother who is a survivor of cancer.
"You're an aul bat I hope you're riddled with cancer," he said to her as she supported her daughter and was holding their child.
Moody put the woman’s mother’s address up online and when the victim tried to sell items on Adverts, Moody wrote horrible messages under the ads like "wouldn’t buy it", "never been worn, could have sworn they turned up on someones phone in one of your pix" and "€60 offered provided you send it on with one of your pix for the lads".
"Naked pix available too, just ask," he added.
He also used his position as a garda to harass, control and terrify her.
The woman made a complaint to the Garda Ombudsman, which had the case for five years and she said did nothing about it.
She described their "neglect" of her "complaint" as "a betrayal of trust".
Gardaí only realised there was a GSOC investigation when they found letters to Moody when they searched his home and contacted the victim.
On the day Moody was first convicted, the woman said she received a call from GSOC which she described as "a sledgehammer".
"This could have been avoided if someone had listened in 2017," she told GSOC.
She asked gardaí to take over this investigation and made a statement to them in 2023.
She described the difference between the two organisations as "the difference between night and day" and said gardaí had restored her faith.
Judge Martin Nolan described the harassment and abuse as prolonged and extreme and said it had a serious, debilitating effect on the victim.
It was, he said, extremely personal, insulting, very undermining and it isolated her from her family and friends as well as destroying her social life.
The judge said it was hard to understand why Moody did what he did, what reasons he had for behaving in such a manner.
The woman he said was entitled to trust him, they had a child together, but he continued his abuse even while she was in hospital because of difficulties with her pregnancy.
He must have known the effect his actions were having, the judge said, it must have been obvious he was making her life totally miserable.
He said this case and that of Nicola Hanney, another of Moody's victims were "roughly similar" and he accepted that he must sentence Moody "globally".
He said the plea of guilty, the expression of remorse, the fact that he has worked and that he has taken steps to deal with his problems are mitigating factors, but he said there is "no guarantee" Moody will not reoffend in the future.
Judge Nolan sentenced Moody to six years in prison but suspended the last fifteen months
He also ordered him to have no contact with the victim, who is the mother of their son, her family or friends for 20 years.
The sentence commences on 28 December 2024, when he finished serving his previous sentence for coercive control of Nicola Hanney.
