The Dublin West TD said she had ‘a number of threats about killing me’.

Michael Galvin of Macroney, Kilworth in Co Cork appeared before the court having made death threats against the woman. He also punched her in the ribs and threw a lighter at her forehead causing a lesion.

The garda allegedly told the terminally-ill woman the only reason he had visited her while in hospital was to “watch you bleed to death”