A woman who was found guilty of assault and production of an article during the repossession of her Leopardstown home has been sentenced to one year in prison, which was suspended in full; however, she was conveyed to prison after she refused to agree to the terms of a suspended sentence.
Lisa Temple (55) of Sir Ivor Mall, The Chase, Brewery Road, Dublin 18, was due to be sentenced last Friday before Judge Martin Nolan; however, this was adjourned to this afternoon after the defendant, who had represented herself during a jury trial, indicated that she wanted to engage legal counsel.
Amid chaotic scenes at the Circuit Criminal Court this afternoon, Ms Temple was taken into custody but given a grace period of a week in which she has leave to change her mind and choose to enter into the bond and submit to the period of the one-year suspended sentence. When Judge Nolan told her he was trying to give her a non-custodial sentence, she replied, “I’m trying to tell you to give up your aul sins!”
Ms Temple has alleged that she and her daughter, who was a minor at the time, were taken from the home by a number of ‘masked’ officials as the property was being repossessed after an order was granted to Bank of Ireland.
Temple was found guilty of assault causing harm in respect of the two officials, one of whom she punched in the side of the head. She was also found guilty of the production of an article described as a “taser” which was deployed during the incident, which took place on the 22nd of March 2022.
Today, Garrett Baker SC, defending, said that although he had just come on record, he had a discussion with his client on Friday afternoon and had received “rigid instructions” to apply again for an adjournment for six weeks as the accused was of the view that “no legal team would be in a position to do her plea of mitigation”.
He said that he hadn’t been furnished with “everything” but left that he could “make a very concise and focused plea”.
He argued that his client was a “woman in her 50s” whose “only engagement” with the criminal justice system was “failure to produce tax disk”, that she has no charges since the incident with the officials four year ago, that the two men were not seriously injured, and that she had admitted possession of the article [taser] although Temple vehemently denied this point in court today.
When Judge Martin Nolan asked, “Has she given you instructions to say she is sorry?”, Mr Baker replied, “No, she has not.”
Ms Temple, who was previously the victim of a “terrifying” assault by her estranged husband, interruped, saying, “Sorry for what?”
Mr Baker said that the case was centred on an “emotionally changed, longstanding property dispute”.
When Garda Keith Arkins entered the witness stand, Ms Temple protested, saying, “Sorry, judge, this is being railroaded”, and, “If this goes ahead, I will not be able to do a judicial review!”
“This is a complete joke!” she insisted, as Judge Nolan repeatedly called on her to “Sit down!”
After the accused persisted in her loud objections, the court instructed prison officers to “take her outside”.
As a number of Gardaí approached Ms Temple, her elder daughter rushed between them and her mother in an effort to stop them, and as one of the officers made contact with her, the accused exclaimed, “You’re assaulting me.”
When the evidence resumed, the court heard that Temple was convicted of three counts, two for assault, and one for breaching Section 11 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act 1990 for the production of an article.
The court heard she lunged at the other official with the taser, which made contact with his “mid-rib” area outside his clothing before he pushed her away. The 9-volt taser was later found in the garden of the property.
When Gardaí were instructed to bring Temple back into the court, Judge Nolan, in his sentencing remarks, said that the assaults themselves were “on the minor side” and that no serious injuries had occurred.
He said that the court believed that the accused was “unlikely” to reoffend, but that some of her behaviour during the trial “was somewhat disgraceful” and that some of her behaviour today was also “somewhat disgraceful”.
He said that it was the court’s view that she did not deserve a custody sentence, but that “her behaviour didn’t help her.”
When the accused asked if she would have a “criminal record”, Judge Nolan told her that she would, whereupon she said that a man who “beat the shit out of me” was given “the probation act”.
“I won’t be of good behaviour,” she said, referring to the condition of the suspended sentence, which would require that she not pick up any new criminal charges for the period of a year.
When the court informed her that if she did not accept the bond, she would be sent to jail, she replied, “I was never afraid of prison; I was afraid of being like all of you!”
Judge Nolan said that “everyone has bent over backwards” to understand her situation, she said, “I had no legal team” and “it was a private estate”.
“I’m trying to impose a non-custodial sentence,” Judge Nolan said, before Temple said, “And I’m trying to tell you to give up your aul sins!”
“Nobody is above the law,” Judge Nolan said, adding, “I don’t want to send you to prison, but if you don’t enter into the bond,” he was interrupted by Ms Temole saying, “I never accepted the arrest!”
Addressing her daughters, one of whom was in tears having unsuccessfully pleaded with her mother to accept the suspended sentence, she said, “There will be no mother left. You can visit me in prison!”
“There will be no me if I accept this!” Ms Temple exclaimed.
“15 men can come in and rape them, and the guards will say it’s a civil matter,” she said, adding, “I am not a criminal”, to which her daughter responded, “Mama, please!”
Asking Judge Nolan, “Do you play chess?”, she said, “Queen to H5”, asking him if he knew what that meant.
She said that Judge Nolan was supposed to be the “King” of the court, adding, “I stood up as queen”.
As she continuously refused to enter into the bond, Judge Nolan instructed the prison officers to “Take her away, please.”
“If she changes her mind within a week, she can enter into the bond”, he said.