Gaol Follows Family Feud

Arson, a macabre hangman's noose and a bizarre threat of rape all resulted from a domestic row over a will.

A Dublin court heard this week that it also led a farmer to threaten another man's life, cause damage costing €43,000 and make the frightening rape threat against his victim's pregnant wife.

Denis Gacquin, of Cornalee, Curraghboy, Co Roscommon, was jailed for two years yesterday after he admitted threatening to kill Seamus Gacquin (who was no relation) on March 23, 2007.

The court heard he had threatened to rape his wife and that he had left a hangman's noose on their back door.

He also admitted setting fire to two hay sheds, the property of Seamus Gacquin, from Ballinasloe Co Roscommon, on separate dates in 2004 and 2005.

Roscommon Circuit Court heard a statement by Seamus Gacquin, whose family inherited land from brothers James and Thomas Gately.

He said that because of the behaviour of the accused, his elderly parents had been in fear for the safety of their children, their grandchildren and their property.

The court heard that Denis Gacquin (57), a bachelor, who was a relation of the Gately brothers, was aggrieved because while they had left him 26 acres of land, they had left more to Seamus Gacquin's family .

Judge Anthony Kennedy said that after giving assurances before, the accused had threatened to kill the injured party and had also made the "disgusting threat" that he would rape a pregnant woman.

He sentenced the accused to four years in prison, with two years suspended, for setting fire to a hay shed and its contents causing €27,000 worth of damage in October 2005.

A concurrent two-year sentence was imposed for an arson attack which destroyed a hay shed, two trailers and 300 bales of hay. A one-year concurrent sentence was imposed for threatening to kill Seamus Gacquin.

(BMcC)