A TEACHER who claims she was harassed by a former boyfriend has told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that she kept a notebook entitled “psycho update”, recording incidents that occurred during a four-year period.
Gráinne Barry (35) told Judge Patrick Moran yesterday that she had kept a contemporaneous notebook of incidents involving Séamus Quirke (46), Glencullen, Duntahane, Fermoy, at the request of local gardaí and had titled it “psycho update” in the interests of preserving her own sanity.
“It was for my own benefit. After what I had been subjected to, it was easier to give him a nickname for my own sanity,” she said.
Séamus Roche, for Mr Quirke, had raised the title of the notebook with Ms Barry, telling her it was “an unfortunate thing to call anyone”.
Ms Barry insisted it was a coping mechanism on her part, adding that the series of incidents with Mr Quirke had begun in 2005. “It was how I coped. I didn’t see his behaviour as that of a normal individual.”
Ms Barry also stressed under questioning that her quality of life had been adversely affected by the alleged harassment. “I know what I lived through. I will not forget the fear.
“ I will not forget having to constantly look over my shoulder.”
She had had an eight-foot gate erected at her property, CCTV and a panic button installed in her house and was on a priority response list with local gardaí.
Yesterday was the third day of the trial, which sees Mr Quirke facing four charges of harassing Ms Barry between 2005 and 2008, and one count of criminal damage.
Earlier this week, the court heard from Ms Barry that she dated Mr Quirke for a few years in the 1990s.
They broke up in 1996 and she did not see him for 12 months and then for a further eight years. She and a friend saw him in Limerick in February 2005 and this began a series of incidents of harassment which continued until 2008.
Ms Barry has testified to several instances in which she claimed Mr Quirke had followed her in his car, adding that she was shocked to find that he had bought property with a view of her home at Glencullen, Duntahane.
She also told the court of an incident in which she saw the accused in her driveway late one night on an unspecified date in July 2007.
The case is continuing.