The former Garda who waged a horrific campaign of coercive control against his terminally ill partner had expected to be promoted to sergeant before his crimes were exposed.
Instead, Paul Moody has started a prison term as prisoner number 116829, separated from other inmates for his own safety.
Moody, 42, has spent his second night in Mountjoy Prison awaiting his expected transfer to a special protection unit at Arbor Hill Prison or Midlands Prison in the coming days. He was in line for promotion after serving in the Corps for about 20 years.
However, that path was quickly blocked after the full extent of the horrific allegations against Moody emerged last year.
On Tuesday, Moody was sentenced to three years and three months in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. He had waged a four-year campaign of intimidation through threats, attacks and compulsive control over his cancer-stricken partner.
He resigned from the police this week, but yesterday there was outrage when it emerged that he will be entitled to part of his Garda pension.
However, a source said the benefits “would only be part of what he would be entitled to once he had completed his shift in full”.
Moody began his sentence in Mountjoy, in a single cell in the prison cell.
He was checked every 15 minutes during the night by prison officials – a common security for any new inmate.
Moody was expected to be transferred to a special protection wing yesterday before moving to another facility, where he will also be kept separate from the prison population for security reasons.
“It is not only because of the horrific nature of his crimes that he must be held in a protective regime, it is also because of his profession. As a former garda, he would be threatened by some inmates,” a source said.
Moody would normally be transferred quickly from Mountjoy, but the country’s prisons have a 96 percent capacity — the highest level since before the Covid-19 pandemic — with 4,028 inmates across the country.
“This slows down a lot of things in terms of logistics,” said the source.
Of course it’s easy to say this now, but he was misunderstood
“If it wasn’t so busy he would probably have been transferred sooner, but that will happen in the coming days.”
Moody spent most of his career in the garda stations of Donnybrook and Irishtown on the south side of Dublin, apart from a stint in the now-defunct Organized Crime Unit (OCU). Sources said he was not popular with many of his peers.
“Of course it’s easy to say this now, but he was misunderstood,” said an officer who worked with Moody for several years.
“It was always thought that he cared way too much about socializing and going to nightclubs and so forth, and that he was more obsessed with his looks than his job. It definitely looked like he was lighting the candle on both sides. was, with his life outside the force and all the fun.
“But when the details of this case came out last year, it was clear he was much worse than that — he was a ‘street angel and house devil’, as the saying goes.”
Another source, who went to secondary school with Moody in Templeogue, a south Dublin suburb, said he was “always a black sheep who always got into trouble”.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris
“He comes from a very decent family, some of whom work in the force. They must be disgusted by his behavior,” the source added.
The investigation into Moody was led by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI).
The Irish independent has learned that GNBCI detectives interviewed other former girlfriends of his, and people who had personal contacts with him.
“It appears that he has also mistreated other women over the years by acting in a controlling manner, but there are currently no plans for new charges against him,” said another source.
“The profile of this person shows that he was a very unpleasant character to say the least.”
After about 20 years on the police force, last year it seemed likely that Moody would be promoted to sergeant after several unsuccessful applications.
However, when the charges against him surfaced, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris decided he should be taken off the promotion list.
Earlier this week in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Martin Nolan said Moody was engaged in a catalog of “humiliating” criminal behavior towards his 43-year-old ex-partner.
In a four-year period, he sent more than 30,000 messages, which were described in court as threatening, despicable and abusive.
In a 14-hour period in July 2018, he sent her 652 messages, which equates to one every 90 seconds.