AN INMATE at Limerick Prison told Gardaí she threatened to rape two fellow female prisoners because she was enraged after being wrongly accused of leaving showers dirty.
Barbie Kardashian (22), of no fixed abode, has pleaded not guilty before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court to one count of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Tegan McGhee, who was an inmate at the prison in February 2023.
Ms Kardashian also denies three further counts of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Rosin Linnane, who at the time was working as a prison officer at the jail.
This Thursday the trial – which has been ongoing throughout this week – heard that, following her arrest for the alleged threats, Ms Kardashian admitted to Gardaí that she did threaten the two women, however she said she had not intended to carry out the threats.
Kardashian further alleged the two victims must have known this, as she was on a reserve prison regime which meant she could not associate with others on the wing.
Ms Kardashian told Gardaí she had suffered an “extremely traumatic childhood” which included being “raped and sexually assaulted” on numerous occasions as a child.
She said she threatened Ms McGhee after Ms McGhee admitted to her that she told others that Ms Kardashian had left the prison showers dirty with “body hair”.
Ms Kardashian told Gardaí these “false rumours” were circulating for weeks at the prison and she had become “increasingly annoyed”.
“I snapped and threatened to rape Tegan with an object … I told her she wasn’t going to be able to have more children,” the accused told Gardaí.
“I am a woman and women rape using objects, that’s why I said an ‘object’ and not my genitalia,” the accused said.
“The threats were made, however I did not intend for her take the threat seriously.”
Ms Kardashian claimed she was also annoyed because “she (Ms McGhee) said I had a male voice, and I find this extremely offensive and transphobic”.
When Gardaí put it to Ms Kardashian that she had said that Ms McGhee “deserved to be punished”, the accused told the interviewing officers “I said this because I wanted the prison authorities to punish her for making false accusations against me”.
Ms Kardashian told Gardaí that neither of the two alleged victims could have believed the threats would have been carried out as she was locked in her cell for “22 hours a day” and segregated from the rest of the prison population.
“The threat was made in the heat of the moment, I was in a heightened state of anxiety, I was isolated away from others and this causes me to respond in an extremely over-exaggerated way,” Ms Kardashian told Gardaí.
Ms Kardashian further claimed in Garda interviews that she was angry after prison officer Ms Linnane allegedly called her a man and referred to her as “Gabriel” in reference to her birth name, Gabriel Alejandro Gentile.
The court heard this was the name the accused was given at birth before she changed her name by deed poll to Barbie Kardashian in 2020, and before she received a gender recognition certificate.
Ms Kardashian told Gardaí she was “in a state of fury” when she threatened Ms Linnane after the prison officer allegedly locked her in the shower room for a few minutes.
Video footage was played in court of three prison officers lifting the accused along a hallway from the shower room to her cell on the day.
“I was so annoyed, I said (to Roisin Linnane) I am going to molest you like my other victims,” the accused told Gardaí.
“If someone keeps annoying me, I just snap. I was expressing my emotions, it was a complete overreaction, it never came into my mind to abuse her.”
The accused said the prison regime that restricted her from mixing with others “affects me emotionally and psychologically, and it makes me overreact”.
“I was saying it out of rage, I lost control for a split second. I’m not justifying my behaviour, I’m explaining it.
“I never raped anyone in my life, I never leave the showers dirty, this is a false rumour, this is what started it all.”
Ms McGhee and Ms Linnane both gave evidence earlier this week of being shocked, terrified, upset, and disgusted at Ms Kardashian’s alleged threats.
Aiden O’Meara, a prison officer at the jail gave evidence he heard the accused threaten to “kill” and “rape” Ms McGhee “and leave her in such a way that she could not have children”.
Ms Kardashian told Gardaí she wanted to apologise for making the threats. She said that, on reflection, her behaviour had been “disproportionate” and “unjustified”.
The prosecution rested its case today (Thursday). The trial continues before a jury of seven women and five men on Friday.
