Man who terrorised and bit ex-girlfriend during burglary had machine gun in his home, court told

David Raleigh

A man burgled and attacked his ex-girlfriend, biting her on her face and buttocks, threw her beloved late grandmother’s ashes into a fire, and kept a loaded machine gun at his home, a court heard.

Willie Woodland, (31), Shanabooly Road, Ballynanty, committed the offences while he was wanted by gardaí for breaching the terms of a suspended sentence for a 2018 firearms conviction for which he received a six-year jail sentence with the final 18 months suspended.

When gardaí raided Woodland’s home on September 3rd, 2024, they found a loaded machine gun, 18 rounds of ammunition, €6,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis, and €1,000 cash.

The seized machine gun, a 9x18mm Makarov calibre, Rak PM63 submachine-gun, was capable of firing 25 rounds in automatic mode. It could also be fired in semi-automatic mode, gardaí told Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.

Gardaí said the gun’s serial number had been erased, it was in “good condition”, and it was loaded with fifteen rounds when gardaí found it in Woodland’s home.

During interviews with gardaí following his arrest, Woodland identified himself in a video he had shared on Snapchat posing with the gun and pulling the trigger when the gun’s magazine clip was empty.

Woodland accepted responsibility for the gun and drugs but would not disclose who he had purchased the weapon from.

Woodland later told gardaí he did not intend to harm anyone with the gun and that he was given €1,000 to hold it for an unidentified party.

The court heard that Woodland told gardaí he was storing the gun because he felt threatened and in fear for his life.

The court also heard Woodland told gardaí he had ordered another person to collect the gun for him, in Tipperary, and that he paid €5,000 for the firearm.

Woodland pleaded guilty to possession of the submachine-gun, ammunition, possession of the drugs for sale or supply, simple possession of the drugs, and a money-laundering charge in respect of the €1,000 cash seized.

Woodland also pleaded guilty to assaulting an ex-girlfriend on two separate occasions, in June and September 2023; aggravated burglary with a knife at the woman’s home; attempted theft; and theft of the woman’s mobile phone.

During one of the unprovoked attacks on the woman, Woodland burgled her home armed with a knife, bear hugged the woman, bit her on the neck, face and back, and stole her phone.

In another attack he bit the woman on her buttocks while trying to steal her phone in another jealous rage.

The woman wrote in a victim impact statement that Woodland “manipulated” her and “isolated” her from her loved ones.

She said Woodland had also tried to “control” her even after they had split up, which she said forced her to obtain a “protection order”, in respect of Woodland, from the courts.

“He entered my home with vengeance, when we weren’t even still together, he pinned me down and he bit me like I was some sort of animal,” the woman said.

“It was a toxic relationship, he threatened me and my family and said he was going to shoot me dead,” she said.

“It was nasty, he was wishing cancer on my nana, and he followed my 69-year old nana with a knife, he’d ring me multiple times, it got physical where it began to be normal.”

The woman said she had to retreat to a woman’s shelter to get away from Woodland and that she was tormented when he disposed of her beloved nan’s ashes following her death.

The woman said she kept her “nan’s ashes” in a keepsake but Woodland “put them in a fire and sent me a video of it”.

Woodland also pleaded guilty to possessing almost €10,000 worth of stolen goods that were robbed by others, not him, from homes in Adare and Rathkeale in May 2021.

Woodland committed all of the above offences while on bail and in breach of his suspended sentence for the 2018 firearms offences.

His barrister, senior counsel Brian McInerney, accepted Woodland’s “offending while on bail” but he asked the court to take into account Woodland’s guilty pleas, and that he has “a long-standing drug addiction”.

“He (Woodland) instructs me he is remorseful, particularly to the young lady, he acknowledges he is going to receive a custodial sentence,” said Mr McInerney.

Judge Colin Daly remanded Woodland to Portlaoise Prison for sentencing on November 16th.