July 2022

Disgraced former garda in isolation in prison over safety fears after being caged for coercive control

Disgraced former Irish policeman Paul Moody is set to be kept in isolation behind bars amid fears for his safety after he became a no1 target 

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.”

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 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.

Moody pleaded guilty to coercively controlling the woman over a three-a-half-year period, beginning soon after they met online in May 2017.

The court heard Moody sent the woman over 30,000 messages 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.

The court heard he also beat her, harassed her and her loved ones, threatened to kill her, damaged her property, and recklessly put her life in danger in his car.