A woman, who has a history of assaulting prison officers, has received an additional 3 months sentence on to the sentence she is currently serving for another offence, after she assaulted a female officer at Mountjoy Prison.
Cathriona Goulding (46) of Old Kilmainham Road, Dublin 8, appeared before the Circuit Criminal Court after pleading guilty to “recklessness” in respect of a charge of assault contrary to Section 3 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
Garda John Beckett of Mountoy Garda Station gave evidence of how, on the 3rd of October 2022, when the accused was told she was being moved from unit 5 of the Dochas Centre to the medical unit she became “agitated and aggressive”.
After being given a “final option” to move herself, she decided to cooperate and was told that her belongings would be searched.
Prosecuting counsel John P Gallagher told Judge Martin Nolan that, when a female officer started to search Goulding’s person, she “became verbally aggressive and abusive” the court heard.
When Goulding was made to remove her t-shirt, she went to grab it back from the officer, who was holding the garment in her left hand. The shirt, having wrapped around the officer’s finger, became caught on the digit as Goulding pulled it, causing the officer’s finger to be twisted.
The injured party said that she “immediately felt pain” and that the accused threatened to “head butt” her while using insulting language towards her.
After receiving medical attention, it was discovered that the officer had sustained a “twisted fracture” and missed 4 weeks of work as a result.
The finger was put in a cast and required pins to keep it in place, the court heard.
Defending counsel Aoife O’ Leary said that her client did not intent to cause injury to the officer, that she has “long standing difficulties with drug addiction and homelessness”, and that she had become agitated when asked to remove her clothing.
Goulding is currently serving a sentence of 3yrs with 1 year suspended and is “doing everything she can” to get into residential care on her current release in March 2026.
O’Leary said her client “did behave badly” during the “demeaning” situation, which O’Leary acknowledged was “part of prison life”.
Goulding has “a very tragic and difficult background” and a number of her siblings died in “violent circumstances”, O’Leary said.
She pleaded with Judge Nolan not to extend her client’s prison term in order for her not to be nocked back to the “back of the list” for the residential care program she is hoping to access.
Judge Nolan said that the accused had “yanked” the t-shirt causing the prison officer to sustain “ a really nasty injury”
“She was disagreeable and confrontational”, he said, adding that the court could no accede to Ms. O’Leary’s plea to avoid further prison time.
Noting that the accused has a “quite serious” record of conviction, he sentenced Goulding to 3 months in prison to run consecutive to the sentence she is currently serving.