Carlow man threatened to ‘chop up’ friend’s mother

A CARLOW man was on temporary release from prison when he called to his friend’s mother’s home and threatened that he would chop her up if she didn’t pay an alleged drug debt.

Justin Doyle (29) of Tyndall Avenue, Leighlinbridge, Carlow was jailed for four years after he pleaded guilty at Carlow Circuit Criminal Court to four counts of demanding money with menace from the woman in November 2024. Mr Doyle was on temporary release from a four-year prison term, when he began to phone the woman and call to her house, demanding money for what he said was her son’s drug debt.

During the two-week period, he told the woman: “I am going to chop you up if I don’t get my money.” On another occasion he told her: “You are not as good at adding up figures as you are at dialling the garda’s number.” 

This was in reference to the fact that the woman said she had already paid Mr Doyle over €15,000.

Sergeant Ronan Bishop told Miranda Egan-Langley BL, prosecuting, that the victim’s son told her in November 2021 that Mr Doyle had been threatening him in relation to a drugs seizure earlier that year. The court heard that both Mr Doyle and the victim’s son were considered responsible for the loss of those drugs and Mr Doyle told the victim that their family owed €20,000.

Sgt Bishop said that on the back of this threat the victim began to make a payment of €200 a week to associates of Mr Doyle. She later told gardaí that as far as she was concerned she had handed over a total of €15,600 by November 2024.

In November 2024, Mr Doyle was on temporary release from a four-year prison sentence, having previously been convicted of demanding money with menace at Kilkenny Circuit Criminal Court. On 9 November 2024, Mr Doyle walked through an open door of the victim’s home and told her that she still owed him money. He was told to leave and he left.

Sgt Bishop said the following week Mr Doyle called at the woman’s home again and banged on the door. He shouted: “You are not as good at adding up figures as you are at dialling the garda’s number”, referring to the fact that the woman had reported the earlier incident to gardaí.

On 19 November 2024, she got further calls from Mr Doyle telling her that she had only paid him €4,650.

That afternoon he called to her home, kicked the door and shouted through the letterbox: “I will cut you up if I don’t get my money.” The woman contacted the gardaí and Mr Doyle was later approached when gardaí on patrol saw him in Leighlinbridge. When Mr Doyle spotted the gardaí, he threw away his phone, but this was later retrieved by the gardaí.

He was taken in for questioning to Carlow Garda Station, where he referred to the victim and her son by name and called them “rats”. Sgt Bishop said he had not made any mention of names of the complainants to Mr Doyle at this point. The defendant made no admissions during the garda interview.

Mr Doyle has 110 previous convictions, including the previous offence of demanding money with menace dealt with in Kilkenny. He also has convictions for drug dealing, possession of knives and road traffic offences.

Sgt Bishop agreed with Jane McCudden BL, defending, that the offending arose from a 2021 drug raid. He accepted that Mr Doyle and the victim’s son were allegedly in debt owing to the loss of these drugs. Sgt Bishop agreed with counsel that Mr Doyle was “put under pressure to recover that debt”.

Ms McCudden asked the court to accept that her client had entered an early guilty plea. She said he had since made efforts to turn his life around and was attending classes in prison.

She said her client’s life had previously been blighted with drug addiction but he was progressing well in custody.

Judge Eugene O’Kelly said the case was aggravated by the fact that Mr Doyle had “literally just been released from prison”. He said the nature of the threats were further aggravated by the fact that they were made at the home of the victim.

“One’s home should be a safe sanctuary,” Judge O’Kelly said, adding that it should be free from persons coming to it and “repeatedly making threats”.

He said the threats were “persistent” and under the guise of “enforcing an alleged drug debt, which was itself grounded in criminality”, the judge said.

Judge O’Kelly set a headline sentence of eight years in prison. He took into account mitigation – including the early guilty plea, which he said was valuable as it saved the state “the expense and uncertainty of bringing the matter to trial” and also saved the victim having to give evidence.

Judge O’Kelly imposed a sentence of six years in prison. He suspended the final two years of that sentence on the condition that Mr Doyle remain under the supervision of the Probation Service and follow all its directions for two years.

The sentence was backdated to November 2024, when Mr Doyle first went into custody.