Disgraced former Garda Paul Moody is set to be kept in isolation behind bars amid fears for his safety.
Moody was jailed for just over three years this week for the coercive control of a woman ill with cancer. Sources claimed the 42-year-old is to be moved this week from Mountjoy to Midlands Prison where he will be placed in protective custody.
One said: “Given the high-profile nature of the case and the fact that this man is a former garda, there are several security concerns that now have to be dealt with in the prison. He is likely to be placed on protection for his own safety and this will probably continue for some time.”
Read more: Evil Garda who told terminally ill ex he wanted to 'watch her bleed to death' jailed
Plans to move Moody to another prison had not been finalised last night but it’s believed Irish Prison Service bosses are considering having him placed in the Midlands. However, he is unlikely to be rubbing shoulders with fellow inmates such as sex killer Graham Dwyer or psycho Mark Nash.
Sources say this period of isolation is indefinite – and could even last the duration of his sentence. With standard remission Moody could be free by the end of 2024.
Moody will eventually be entitled to his Garda pension. And Garda Representative Association chief Brendan O’Connor said yesterday he would welcome change to the system after Moody was able to resign with his intact.
He told RTE radio’s Morning Ireland: “For change or to address this will require legislative change in relation to the finance regulations. It’s very important that justice is seen to be done and certainly this is an element in this case. It certainly needs to be looked at going forward. I would see merit in change.”
Gda O’Connor said GRA members were “absolutely shocked and appalled, at what emerged and what the victim was put through. It’s a very difficult day for members of the Garda Siochana. It’s very difficult for members to deal with. And they pursued this case and ensured it would be investigated to a very high level.
“The message from our members is we want to reach out to victims and ensure it doesn’t matter who the perpetrator is, or their perceived status, if you make a complaint, it will be pursued.
“You’ll get your rights vindicated and support services will be there to get you to a place of safety, and accompany you through all the steps of the investigation and to the day in court where justice will be visited upon the perpetrators.”
Meanwhile, Women’s Aid said a tougher sentencing should be considered in cases of coercive control after Moody was handed a sentence of three years and three months. The maximum sentence for the offence, which came into effect in January 2019, is five years.
Women’s Aid’s Sarah Benson said: “I think this is something we need to reflect on in the future. “I think a case like this really does give us pause when you see that a relationship of four years, the vast majority of which was constituted through degradation, humiliation, violence and pain perpetrated against the victim...I think a higher level of sentencing should be considered.
“We know through our direct services that it does have a chilling effect if the perpetrator is somebody in a position of standing. But I think I would take great confidence from the statements from the gardai that they did respond so thoroughly and without hesitation to this report.”
The court heard Moody sent the woman over 30,000 messages over those years and in one 14-hour period, in July 2018, he sent her 652 messages – one every 90 seconds.
The messages were described in court as threatening, vile and abusive. In one he described her as being “riddled with cancer”, in another, while she was on holiday without him, he said he hoped she would “get raped and bleed”. In another, after a row on holiday, he messaged her and said she was “flaunting your body around the pool” calling her a “dirtbox” and a “scumbag”. And he threatened to stick a knife in her in one voice message.
Judge Nolan said Moody’s behaviour was at the highest end of the offence but he had to take his guilty plea into consideration. He said Moody had carried out vile and humiliating criminal behaviour.
He said he abused his position to obtain information which he used to harass and humiliate the victim and he also endangered her life by driving recklessly at one point.
The guilty plea was accepted on the basis of full facts in relation to a further 19 counts including harassment, assault causing harm, criminal damage, threats to cause criminal damage, endangerment, theft and threats to kill.
Moody joined the Garda in 2000 but was suspended from duty in March 2021, following a search of his home arising out of this investigation.
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