Kathleen Mulhern represents man acquitted of making threats to kill against his childhood abuser.

Kathleen represented a man who had been charged with four counts of making threats to kill and three counts of possessing an offensive weapon, namely a machete, a hammer and a lock knife.

The prosecution's case was that Kathleen’s client had contacted a mental health charity text service and made explicit threats to kill a man who had sexually abused him when he was a child. The client told the charity was driving to his abuser’s home address in order to kill him and mentioned using a machete and hammer. The threats were contained within a text message conversation with the charity and produced in full before the jury.

The charity had alerted the police to the threats, and the police found the suspect in his car parked in a layby halfway between his home address and his abuser's address. The defendant repeatedly uttered threats to kill his abuser to the police officers in attendance and throughout his detention in police custody. Upon searching his car, police found a machete, a hammer and a lock knife.

At trial, the prosecution conceded that the client had a reasonable excuse to be in possession of the machete, hammer and lock knife, due to him using them during the course of his work. The prosecution therefore offered no evidence on those counts.

Kathleen submitted to the jury that it was clear that her client was having a mental health crisis and did not intend for the threats he uttered to be believed.

Her client was acquitted of all four counts by the jury following the trial.

Kathleen was instructed by Tahir Ali of Wainwright and Cummins Solicitors.