A solicitor for Chrissie Treacy wrote to her nephew Michael Scott telling him to stop threatening and intimidating her and interfering with her property in the year before she died, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Michael Scott (58) of Gortanumera, Portumna, Co. Galway has pleaded not guilty to murdering Chrissie Treacy outside her home in Derryhiney, Portumna, Co. Galway on April 27, 2018 by running over her in an agricultural teleporter.
His lawyers have said her death was a tragic accident.
Asked to stop threatening behaviour
Solicitor Brendan Hyland told prosecution counsel, barrister Conall MacCarthy that he acted for Chrissie Treacy and her brothers Willie and Michael over a number of decades.
He said that in 2017, Chrissie Treacy wanted an “enhanced” rent on a 42ac farm that she had been renting to Michael Scott and asked her solicitor to help her put the farm on the market.
In a letter from Brendan Hyland to Scott, he noted that damage had been done to the farm and to equipment owned by the new tenant.
He said in the letter that Scott had “interfered with the letting of lands” and “sought to intimidate neighbours and potential tenants from taking the land”.
He added that Scott had also made threats to interfere with Chrissie Treacy’s home help and warned that legal action would follow if he failed to “cease making threats and interfering with her [Chrissie Treacy’s] rights”.
The solicitor said he had concerns that Chrissie Treacy was vulnerable and that a lot of pressure was being put on her in relation to the land that she owned.
He also detailed a dispute in which Scott’s solicitor stated that an agreement had been made whereby Chrissie Treacy’s land would go to Scott when she died.
No such agreement had been made, Brendan Hyland told the court, and as a result of Scott’s behaviour and attitude towards Chrissie Treacy, she instructed him to partition the land they jointly owned.
Farm
Brendan Hyland told the trial that following the deaths of her brothers Willie and Michael, Chrissie Treacy came to own the 42ac farm at Kiltormer and half of a 140ac farm around her home at Derryhiney.
The other half of the Derryhiney farm was owned by Michael Scott. They were, he said, joint owners and “tenants in common” meaning that the farm was not partitioned and neither one owned specific lots or fields, but “every blade of grass was held at 50% each”.
In 2017, Chrissie Treacy came to Brendan Hyland’s offices with her friend and neighbour Regina Donohue and an agricultural auctioneer named Declan McHugh.
The court heard that Chrissie was, at that time, renting her lands at Kiltormer to the accused man Michael Scott and his brother Tom Scott. She wanted to engage Declan McHugh to put the land on the market because she was “anxious to get a greater or enhanced rent”.
On April 11, 2017, Chrissie Treacy’s solicitor wrote to Michael Scott saying: “We are instructed that you have interfered with the letting of lands by the new tenant, furthermore you have made threats and sought to intimidate neighbours and potential tenants from taking the land.
“You threatened to interfere with our client’s home-help coming to her house where she lives on her own.
“Unless you cease making such threats and interfering with her proprietary rights in relation to her letting her lands and her use and enjoyment of the privacy of her own home, we will take legal action including applying to the court for an injunction to prevent interference.”
Her solicitor also noted that damage had been done to fencing at Kiltormer and said that all matters had been reported to gardaí. The same letter was sent to Tom Scott.
On April 27, Brendan Hyland sent a further letter to Tom and Michael Scott calling on them to “immediately cease interfering with Ms. Treacy’s land and stop damaging the fence”.
The letter stated that further damage had been done to electric fencing at Kiltormer and that lead had been left exposed creating a danger to animals on the land.
The letter stated: “We again call on you to cease interfering with our client’s lands. If you fail or refuse, our client will have no option but to take legal action.”
On the same date Hyland sent a letter to gardaí setting out concerns for Ms. Treacy’s safety.
Will
Around this time, Chrissie Treacy also instructed her solicitor to draw up a new will in which she appointed her friend Regina Donohue as her executor and left “everything to her”.
On April 28, Brendan Hyland received a phone call from Michael Scott. “He was extremely angry and abusive on the phone to me and I couldn’t speak because he was in such a rage, he didn’t give me a chance to respond,” the solicitor said.
“He accused me of giving wrong instructions and that he had nothing to do with this and he wasn’t involved in the matters that were the subject of the letter.”
The solicitor told the court that he was “shocked at the utter vehemence of his anger”.
About 45 minutes later, Michael Scott phoned back with a “completely different tone” and apologised for hanging up on the previous call.
Brendan Hyland told Michael Scott he should get his solicitor to respond if he had a difficulty with what was in the letter. Scott also made a complaint about Declan McHugh, accusing him of “interfering” and “trying to cause trouble”.
In August that year, gardaí told Brendan Hyland that they were aware of the difficulties between Chrissie Treacy and Michael Scott, but because a formal complaint had not been made, they could not progress the matter.
In November 2017, Chrissie Treacy called Brendan Hyland saying Michael Scott’s lease on her half of the land at Derryhiney had expired and she wanted to “regularise matters”.
She said that Scott was “anxious for a new lease” and if he couldn’t get the lease it would create difficulties for him and his dairy business. The solicitor said Chrissie seemed “very upset”.
Land dispute
Chrissie Treacy’s solicitor asked Declan McHugh to value the land because he felt there was a “gross undervalue” in what was being paid.
A short time later Brendan Hyland received a call from Chrissie Treacy’s phone but when he took up the call Michael Scott was on the other end.
“That surprised me,” he said. “The only thing I could presume was he was in her kitchen.”
“I was very concerned about her, that a lot of pressure was being put on her,” he said.
“I knew her, she was a very kind lady and quiet, an inoffensive person, living on her own and she was very vulnerable.”
Scott told her solicitor that he wanted a lease in his wife’s name and that the terms would be the same as before which, Scott said, was €6,000/year.
On December 6, that year, Chrissie Treacy called Brendan Hyland. She was very upset, seemed “disorientated” and “under enormous stress”.
He told her he would call to her home as he felt “she was completely vulnerable and a lot of pressure was being put on her”.
Her solicitor later discovered that her confusion and upset was caused by a letter from Michael Scott’s solicitor which contained a new six-year lease on the land at a rate of €6,000/yr and requested Chrissie Treacy to sign the lease in the presence of her solicitor.
On December 8, Declan McHugh told Brendan Hyland that he valued the lease for Chrissie Treacy’s half of the land at Derryhiney at €13,000/yr.
Brendan Hyland wrote to Scott’s solicitor saying that Chrissie Treacy now wanted to partition the land at Derryhiney and stating that she had been subjected to threats and intimidation from Scott.
One week later, Scott’s solicitor wrote back saying that Scott would not agree to the partition but he would offer an increased rent of €8,000/yr for Chrissie Treacy’s half of the land.
The letter added that Scott “does not understand the suggestion of threats and intimidation on his part. It seems our mutual clients have been getting on quite well for several years now and hopefully that will continue”.
On January 5, the following year, Chrissie Treacy spoke to her solicitor and again concerns were expressed regarding the ongoing difficulties between her and Scott over land.
On January 24, Brendan Hyland received a letter from a new solicitor acting for Scott suggesting a division of the land and a 10-year rental agreement for Michael Scott at current market rates with an option to review the rate over the 10 years.
The new solicitor wrote that it had been agreed that Chrissie Treacy would enter a new arrangement whereby she would have the use of her portion of the land for life and thereafter it would transfer to Scott.
Under such an arrangement, Brendan Hyland said Chrissie Treacy would have the use of her land but would not have full legal ownership of it. She would not be able to sell or give away her portion or leave it to someone else in her will.
Chrissie Treacy told her solicitor that she had not and would “under no circumstances” enter into any such agreement.
Her solicitor responded to the letter saying that no such agreement had been made.
He added: “Due to difficulties caused by your client’s behaviour and attitude towards my client, my client has instructed me to send papers to counsel to draft partition proceedings.”
He further asked the solicitor to “request your client to cease threatening or intimidating our client in relation to her own affairs”.
The trial continues today at the Central Criminal Court before Justice Caroline Biggs and a jury of seven men and eight women.
By Eoin Reynolds