Strabane man appears in court charged with number of domestic offences
41-year-old Ruaidhri Gallagher faces a string of domestic abuse charges after allegedly making over 200 calls to a former partner.
A man has appeared at Derry Magistrate's Court charged with a number of domestic offences.
Ruaidhri Gallagher (41) of Orchard Road in Strabane was charged with harassment on October 31, making threats to kill on October 26, abusive behaviour between October 5 and November 2, using public communications to send abusive messages between October 30 to 31, stalking between October 5 and November 2, abusive behaviour on November 1 and assault on October 20 and 24.
All of the offences were aggravated by way of domestic abuse.
Police were initially called about a case of ongoing domestic abuse by the alleged injured party, who had been in a relationship with Gallagher for less than a month in October.
After she ended the relationship, she showed police over one hundred screenshots that were allegedly from Gallagher.
Gallagher was said to have repeatedly accused her of having sexual contact with other men and called her various names.
He is also said to have threatened to crash his car when she told him she would break up with him.
Gallagher was alleged to have become aggressive and grabbed her phone while they were in bed and again accusing her of being with other men.
After the relationship ended at the end of October, Gallagher was said to have made over two hundred phone calls and sent over one hundred messages, including a photo of himself standing outside the police station while she was inside making a statement.
He was also alleged to have threatened to slit her throat during an argument.
When interviewed, Gallagher confirmed that he had made the calls and sent the messages, telling police he was 'not proud' of his actions.
He denied making threats to kill and assaulting his former partner.
Police objected to bail, noting that Gallagher has a number of previous convictions for domestic offences involving different partners.
Defence solicitor John McManus repeated that Gallagher denied making threats and the alleged assaults, also telling the court that Gallagher and the alleged injured party had met in person on two occasions in recent days.
He also noted that Gallagher's address is fifteen miles away.
Bail was granted on conditions including that he not enter the city of Derry apart from court appearances, he not use any social media sites, he have no contact with the alleged injured party and he have a phone only for calls and texts, with all access details given to police.
He will appear again on December 2.