A HAIRDRESSER has been spared a conviction for making menacing silent phone calls to a woman after his relationship with her brother came to an “acrimonious” end.

Wayne Ashmore (32) repeatedly called the mother-of-three, who said she was in fear for her family’s safety.

Judge John Hughes dismissed the case under the Probation Act, leaving Ashmore without a criminal record.

Ashmore, of Allenton Drive, Tallaght, had denied making menacing calls, but he was found guilty after a non-jury trial at Dublin District Court.

Probation and restorative justice reports were handed in.

Ashmore gave an undertaking under oath to make no further contact with the victim.

The judge said it was a serious matter involving a “fractured business relationship”.

He had previously noted that while it had been traumatic for the victim, there were no blatant threats and Ashmore made a “gross error of judgment”.

The court had heard calls came from a private number over a two-day period on August 26 and 27, 2017.

On the first call, nobody spoke and the caller hung up after a few seconds, the woman said.

There were four or five more similar calls that day.

The next day, “somebody was laughing in a menacing way”.

The victim received more than 10 calls that day. In some, she heard people laughing, and in one there was a woman talking, she said.

The accused did not speak on any of the calls.

“It impacted me tremendously,” the victim said.

“I was extremely frightened, I felt like someone was watching me.”

Ashmore admitted to gardai that he had made calls and explained his relationship with the victim’s family – “various business dealings and such like”.

Ashmore was the former partner of the victim’s brother.

That ended acrimoniously and there had been a civil court case over business assets that had been shared by the two men relating to a hair salon they owned.

The accused had no previous convictions.

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