Threatened to kill service station worker over sharing video
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A MAN who made threats to kill a worker at a Carlow service station while accusing her of sharing a compromising video of him has been convicted of two public order offences.
Daniel Doyle (28) with an address of Templeowen, Tullow, Co Carlow appeared before a sitting of Carlow District Court charged with threatening and abusive behaviour and being intoxicated in a public place contrary to section 6 and 4 of the .
Giving evidence, the worker, who was the manager of the store at the time, told the court that on 17 August 2025, she was stacking shelves when she heard a loud bang from the front door of the shop. The accused, a man she knew well, entered the store and began screaming and roaring her name in an aggressive manner.
The witness said that the defendant accused her of having a video of him engaged in a sexual act with a woman behind the witness’s house and of showing that video to his girlfriend.
She told the court that she knew Mr Doyle “very well” and never had anything other than pleasant interactions with him prior to this incident and described him as a “pleasant, polite, happy chap”. She said she told Mr Doyle that she did not have any such video; however, he refused to listen to her and started making threats to kill her and used repeated expletives while roaring and screaming at her.
The witness said she shouted back at Mr Doyle to get out of her face, when he then tried to grab her arm before she retreated behind the till for her safety. She told the court that the man remained at the door of the shop and continued to shout obscenities at her before a 20-year-old colleague called the gardaí.
Defence solicitor Joe Farrell asked the witness if she had spoken to his client’s girlfriend about the video at any stage, which she denied doing, although she said she had heard Mr Doyle was looking for her approximately five days prior to the incident.
She added that she has had no further issues with Mr Doyle since the incident and no longer works at the shop.
Giving evidence, Garda Togher said that at 6.30pm on the date in question she was alerted to an incident at Applegreen on Thomas Traynor Road, where a man was allegedly shouting abuse at one of the workers and had grabbed her arm.
Shortly after the incident was reported, the defendant was located outside Tesco on Abbey Street, where he was described by Garda Togher as being in “a very agitated state”.
“He appeared very high on drugs,” said Garda Togher, adding that he was a potential danger to the public as a result.
Garda Togher said that when approached by the gardaí, the accused claimed that he had not hit the worker in the shop and had only grabbed her arm.
Garda Togher said that when she explained to Mr Doyle that he would be arrested, he took off running but was soon apprehended after tripping up over himself, adding that he banged on the inside of the van for the duration of the journey to the garda station.
CCTV footage from the shop was shown in court, after which Mr Farrell said that the evidence given by the witness contradicted the footage shown and, therefore, made an application for the charges to be dismissed. He submitted that the witness could be seen in the footage appearing to mock the accused with a walking motion, that she was not visibly panicked and that she engaged with him directly.
Mr Farrell also pointed to the accused holding the door open to allow other members of the public to enter and exit the shop and argued that this showed he was not behaving in the manner described.
Mr Farrell also noted that the witness herself had described the accused as generally a pleasant and polite individual and she did not appear in the footage to be cowering or in fear.
In respect of the section 4 charge, Judge Carthy said that Garda Togher gave “very clear evidence” and she was satisfied that the threshold had been reached.
For the section 6 charge of using threatening and abusive behaviour, Judge Carthy acknowledged that the first two CCTV clips shown might have led the court to agree with the defence, but said it was the third viewing where the defendant was “hogging the door” of the shop which left her in no doubt that a breach of the peace had occurred and she returned a guilty verdict on both counts.
Mr Farrell said he respected the findings of the court, adding: “I don’t think the court will punish us for contesting it.”
The court heard that the defendant has six previous convictions, with the most recent being for a section 6 public order offence from June 2024, for which he received a seven-month suspended sentence.
Judge Carthy adjourned sentencing on the matter until 15 April to allow for a probation report on the defendant.
