A man who told his daughter he will kill her “when I have the chance” told he must be in “Cloud Cuckoo Land” if he harbours hopes of ever reconciling with her.
Sewraj Bayrajee, 57, of Dawson Street in Armagh, appeared before the city’s Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Newry, charged with a harassment.
A prosecution lawyyer stated that at 9pm on Friday, June 14, police received a report from the injured party in relation to abusive and threatening messages received from her estranged father.
She stated that her father had messaged her since 6.10pm, saying, “why are you messaging my sister, you f***ing tramp…I hope you die soon”, and calling her expletive names.
Other messages included, “stay away from us before I kill you” and “I kill you when I have the chance”.
The injured party then told him to “hurry up and get a plane back to Mauritius”, to which he responded, “not till I finish you and your mother…”
The injured party was being encouraged by family to report this, as she said, “his messages were getting worse”.
Bayrajee did come to her front door approximately six weeks previous.
Police recorded a statement from the injured party, and there were screenshots of the messages. Bayrajee was arrested, interviewed and admitted in interview that he dictated the messages to be sent.”
Bayrajee’s defence solicitor told the court his client has been living in Northern Ireland for 28 years, since 1996, adding that he’s divorced from his wife since 2013, after 15 years of marriage.
“He has four adult children, one of which is the injured party in this case, and he’s not having any contact with the family at present, obviously, there’s been a breakdown there.”
He continued: “He has always worked since he’s been living in Northern Ireland. He owned a restaurant as recently as three years ago; that closed down due to the onset of various different health issues. He’s now reliant on benefits, but he is hoping to get back into the restaurant industry as soon as he can and as soon as he’s physically able.
“He has his struggles with alcoholism. He’s currently engaged with the community addictions team, and alcohol appears to have played a role in some of this offending.
“He does now apologise for his behaviour, he sees that his behaviour was wholly inappropriate and he does hope that one day he can reconcile with his children, and in particular, the complainant in this case.”
The solicitor alluded to the live suspended sentence but said it was in relation to a different injured party and different offence.
However, District Judge Laura Marshall interjected: “But it’s the mother. We can’t easily divorce these offences from each other. So he was up in court on the 11th of June, when he got a prison sentence in respect of the mother, yes?
“And then he sent these messages and turns up at the daughter’s house over three months from March into June. One would expect that someone at Maghaberry’s door would be coming to court consenting to anything other than immediate custody, and he’s not consenting to Community Service.
“This behaviour, in and of itself, is absolutely dreadful, and the things he said to his own daughter, how he hopes ever to reconcile with this lady after all of this, he may well be living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.”
Judge Marshall asked Bayrajee’s defence counsel to liaise with his client regarding Community Service, to which the 57-year-old consented, sparing himself a stint behind bars.
Said Judge Marshall: “When I’m considering a prison sentence of 12 months or less, I have to consider whether an enhanced combination order would meet the merits of the case, and not without some degree of hesitation, I’m going to give you one chance to do an enhanced community combination order; that is a higher level of compliance than a normal probation or community service.
“If you start missing appointments, the community service side or probation side, you can come back to court with a bag packed for Maghaberry because you’re in breach of a suspended sentence.”
Bayrajee was given two years on Probation with 100 hours of Community Service to complete.
