A LIMERICK court heard that, following threats to kill members of his family, the siblings of a Croom man were forced to intervene after his elderly mother’s face was “left black and blue.”
Raymond Creegan (29) of 12 Glenma, Croom, appeared before Limerick District Court charged with two counts of threatening to kill and possession of a knife.
His siblings, Derek and Ann Marie Creegan, asked to give evidence to the court despite Judge Patricia Harney having read a victim impact statement from his parents, which she described as “quite horrible”.
Derek Creegan told Limerick District Court that his brother Raymond had posted videos online, “threatening to rearrange our faces, that he’s going to get us. The fear we feel is unreal – I’m watching myself everywhere I go.”
Mr Creegan said that their father had minimised the fear and suffering his brother causes “because he is too proud to admit what is happening. My parents arrived at my house with a bag of clothes and their medication in case he gets out today.”
The court heard from defendant’s solicitor, John Herbert, that Raymond Creegan suffers from mental health problems and that problems arise if he does not take his medication.
“This is a beyond tragedy,” Mr Herbert said. “He uses drugs and despite the fact that drugs are available in the prison, he has not gone there (taken them). He cannot access rehabilitation services because of the prescription drugs he has to take.”
The accused man’s sister, Ann Marie Creegan, told Judge Harney that the family had called a meeting and gone to consult Raymond’s doctor “because our mother’s face was left black and blue.”
She said that when her brother “gets prescribed medication or methadone, he’s selling them online. He’s abusing the mental health system.”
Hearing that Mr Creegan had 35 previous convictions, mostly for public order offences, Judge Harney said that “regardless of his mental state, his decision to take or not take his prescribed medication is his responsibility.”
The Judge said she also had to take into account the “fear all of these people feel”, and the fact that he had entered a guilty plea to the charges.
She imposed two consecutive four-month sentences for the threat to kill charges with allowances for time in custody.
