From Galway Bay fm newsroom- A solicitor for Chrissie Treacy of Portumna wrote to her nephew Michael Scott in the year before she died, telling him to stop threatening and intimidating her, and interfering with her property.
58 year old Mr Scott, of Gortanumera, denies murdering his 76 year old aunt by deliberately running over her in an agricultural teleporter outside her home.
His lawyers have told the Central Criminal Court her death in April 2018 was a tragic accident.
Solicitor Brendan Hyland told the prosecution he acted for Ms Treacy and her brothers Willie and Michael over a number of decades.
He said that in 2017 Ms Treacy wanted an "enhanced" rent on a 42-acre farm in Derryhiney that she had been renting to Mr Scott and asked Mr Hyland to help her put the farm on the market.
In a letter to Mr 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 Mr Scott had "interfered with the letting of lands" and "sought to intimidate neighbours and potential tenants from taking the land".
He said Mr Scott had also made threats to interfere with Ms Treacy's home help and warned that legal action would follow if he failed to "cease making threats and interfering with her rights".
Mr Hyland said he had concerns that Ms 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 Mr Scott's solicitor stated that an agreement had been made whereby Ms Treacy's land would go to Mr Scott when she died.
Mr Hyland told the court that no such agreement had been made, and as a result of Mr Scott's behaviour and attitude towards Ms Treacy, she instructed him to partition the land they jointly owned.
Mr Hyland's evidence will continue today in front of Ms Justice Caroline Biggs.
