A PRISONER AT Limerick Prison has been acquitted of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to an officer and a fellow inmate at the facility.
Barbie Kardashian (22) a transgender woman of no fixed abode, had denied one count of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Tegan McGhee who was a prisoner at the jail on 25 February 2023.
Kardashian also denied two counts of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to female prison officer Roisin Linnane, at the prison, on 9 and 11 June 2023.
The trial judge, Colin Daly, told the jury of seven women and five men to find Kardashian “not guilty” in respect of a third count of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Ms Linnane on 25 April 2023.
Kardashian told the court earlier today that she had wanted to “torture” and “electrocute” the genitals of her fellow inmate using an “electric rod” when she threatened to rape her.
However, she was found “not guilty” this evening by a jury of seven women and five men following a four-day trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
Kardashian had told the trial she had also wanted to rape prison officer Roisin Linnane, but that this would not have been a realistic threat, as she was locked up alone in her cell for 22 hours a day.
The jury found Kardashian “not guilty” of three counts of threatening to kill or cause serous harm to the prison officer, intending her to believe the threat would be carried out.
It took the jury two hours and 35 minutes to reach verdicts in respect of three of the counts counts.
Earlier, trial judge Colin Daly had directed the jury to find Kardashian “not guilty” of one of the counts against Linnane.
Kardashian looked visibly surprised after the “not guilty” verdicts were read out and addressing her barrister Andrew Sexton SC, instructed by Yvonne Quinn, BL, and solicitor Julianne Kiely, she enquired “on all three counts?”.
Kardashian broadly smiled and whispered “Yes…I’m so happy”.
Earlier today, Kardashian gave direct evidence in court that she had wanted to make McGhee and Linnane “suffer” because she was upset and angry after rumours had circulated around the female wing of the prison that she had been leaving the showers dirty with body hair.
She claimed Linnane had been “openly intimidating” her on the prison landing and scowled her for taking from the prison canteen and she was annoyed at the prison officer.
Linnane denied this when she gave evidence and said she had been “terrified” of Kardashian after she threatened her.
McGhee told the trial that she had accused Kardashian of leaving the showers dirty and that Kardashian’s in turn threatened to rape her.
McGhee said she had the job of cleaning the showers and she had to use “a hose” a number of times to remove “body hair” from the showers.
Kardashian, who was not allowed mix with other prisoners on the female wing, told the trial she used the showers everyday and left them clean. She said hygiene was “very important to her and she “didn’t want to smell”.
Answering defence barrister Andrew Sexton, Kardashian described being “upset and disappointed” at the rumours that were circulating about her among the female prisoners.
Under cross examination from prosecution counsel John O’Sullivan, Kardashian admitted threatening to rape McGhee with an object so that the extent of McGhee’s injuries would be that “she would not be able to have children”.
O’Sullivan asked Kardashian “what object” would be used to rape Ms McGhee.
“I wanted to use an electric rod, but that wasn’t available to me. I remember thinking I wanted to use the handle of a sweeping brush or a mop. I wanted to torture her [Ms McGhee] sexually, I wanted to sexually electrocute her genitalia,” Kardashian replied.
When asked why use the word “object” in the rape threat, Kardashian replied: “Because I am a woman, and women use objects, that’s why I said ‘object’.”
She added: “I hate having male genitalia and I would use an object to commit rape. If a woman wants to rape, that’s how I would commit rape.”
When O’Sullivan put it to Kardashian that the trial heard it was only females that the accused had threatened, Kardashian replied: “I have threatened to sexually assault males since these incidents.”
Kardashian agreed with O’Sullivan that she had “snapped” in a fit of rage after rumours had circulated “for months” about her and the showers.
She admitted in court to making a threat to rape McGhee and making threats to “sexually assault” or “molest” Linnane.
“I wanted to punish them for life for making false allegations about me…I wanted revenge”,” Kardashian said.
O’Sullivan asked Kardashian checked if the accused had stated in her direct evidence “for life”, to which Kardashian replied: “Yes, for life”.
O’Sullivan also asked if Kardashian wanted to inflict “life changing injuries” on the two alleged victims to which Kardashian replied: “That’s correct.”
O’Sullivan put it to Kardashian that “you claim to be a woman yourself” but that the accused wanted to make the women suffer sexually.
Kardashian replied: “Yes, I wanted to make them suffer.”
She agreed with O’Sullivan of having wanted to “torture” the two alleged victims and agreed they had “deserved it”.
“Yes, but the electric rod wasn’t available to me. It applied more to Roisin [Linnane] as I hated her more than Tegan,” Kardashian said.
Kardashian, who had told Gardaí that she had been raped and sexually assaulted a number of times as a child, gave evidence that she had wanted to make “a very extreme threat” against Linnane in order “to make her suffer”.
O’Sullivan asked Kardashian “did you intend” Tegan McGhee to believe the rape threat was real, to which Kardashian replied: “Yes, I wanted her to suffer. I felt she wronged me and I wanted revenge.”
“The threats of rape were made to Tegan, not to Roisin Linnane. I didn’t threaten [Ms Linnane] rape, I threatened sexual assault,” said Kardashian.
Kardashian, who the court heard was born a male named Gabriel Alejandro Gentile and who had legally changed name by deed-poll to Barbie Kardashian and had received a certificate from the State recognising her as female in 2020, agreed with Mr O’Sullivan that a threat of rape was “possibly the worst thing to do to a woman”.
“Or a man” Kardashian went on.
“I wanted to use an object to rape her [Ms Linnane] but that wouldn’t have been realistic, so I said I wanted to grab her vagina, as that would have been realistic,” Kardashian said.
“I wanted her [Ms Linnane] to suffer as a result of being molested. What I said was, I was going to put my hands between her legs and grab her vagina. To molest her was a realistic threat and I wanted her to believe the threat.”
“I remember saying to her that I was going to molest her and sexually assault her, like my other victims.”
Aiden O’Meara, a Prison Officer at Limerick Prison gave evidence earlier that he heard Kardashian threaten to “rape” and “kill” McGhee.
“I have no doubt the threat was made with malice and forethought,” O’Meara said.
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