A WOMAN has been sentenced for the fourth time for stalking her former lecturer.
Elaine Tyrell (54) appeared in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after breaching a previous court order that she not have any contact with the man for 10 years. She was arrested after going to his workplace at KPMG where she approached the chief executive and asked about her victim.
Judge Martin Nolan imposed a one-year suspended sentence and warned Tyrell the original barring order is still in effect. On Thursday, he jailed Tyrell for one night to show her what prison was like. “Ms Tyrell obviously has problems but the man in question should not suffer because of these problems,” Judge Nolan said.
He told Tyrell: “The court doesn’t particularly want to imprison you but that will be the likely outcome if you breach the order again.”
Her defence counsel told the court it was a sad case for everyone and “most unfortunate” that cases like this had to be dealt with in the criminal courts.
Tyrell believed she was in a romantic relationship with her victim after he taught a class she was in in the 1980s. She has spent time in a psychiatric institution and is on medication.
Tyrell, of Captains Road, Crumlin, Dublin, pleaded guilty to breaching a court order by going to the KPMG offices at the International Financial Services Centre on August 17th, 2010.
Sgt Tomas Gormley told prosecuting counsel Kerida Naidoo BL that, in July 2010, Tyrell was ordered by Judge Katherine Delahunt to stay at least 500 yards from her victim and not go to his home or workplace.
A month later, she went into KPMG where she approached the chief executive and asked him for information on some business propositions. The chief executive had been told about Tyrell and realised who she was.
She left the offices but later sent the chief executive several letters asking him to help “reunite” her and her victim, and saying she would book a hotel room for their “reconciliation”. Gardaí were alerted and Tyrell was arrested. This was her fourth conviction in relation to stalking the man.
As well as the Judge Delahunt order, she was jailed for three months in February 2003 for harassing the man and given the Probation Act in January 2005 for the same offence. Defence counsel Dominic McGinn SC said his client was not vindictive and had never made threats. He asked Judge Nolan to give her one more chance and hope “things improve with her”.