By Tim Binnall
A self-proclaimed psychic in Ireland will be spending the next year in jail after being found guilty of bilking a client out of more than $10,000 by claiming that his dead father wanted him to give her the money. The unfortunate case reportedly began when James Byrne met Debbie Paget, who was working as a caregiver for his neighbor. At some point during their burgeoning friendship, she told him that she is psychic and offered to provide what she described as a "reading." Expecting a glimpse into his future, Byrne readily accepted, however, what ultimately unfolded led to him losing a sizeable amount of money and Paget heading to prison.
At a trial over the matter, Byrne recalled how the reading quickly turned troubling when Paget revealed that the man's late father had entered the proverbial chat and "said you are to give me €10,000." Recounting how he felt considerable pressure to cough up the money, he indicated that he promised the psychic that he would do so and, when he failed to follow through fast enough, received a rather dire message. "If you don't," Paget is said to have warned him, "it will be a sin and the devil will get you." That was apparently enough to convince Byrne that he best give her the money and, as such, he subsequently handed the 10,000 Euros over to the purported psychic.
"I believed my father told her to tell me to give her the money" he testified at the trial, "that's what I believed." Byrne's opinion ultimately changed and he reported the situation to police, who brought the psychic in for questioning. During the interrogation, Paget was resolute in her purported mystical abilities and asserted that she can "see beyond the veil," which allows her to speak with those on the 'other side.' Claiming to have provided access to her gift for free to people for over four decades, she insisted that Byrne had fabricated the whole story. It would seem that authorities did not believe her as she was eventually charged with 'dishonestly inducing by deception.'
The jury in Paget's case ultimately found her guilty after four hours of deliberation and the psychic learned her fate at a sentencing hearing on Monday. Calling the purported medium "an old-fashioned confidence trickster," Judge Pauline Codd posited that although the words of warning at the center of the case were "fantastical" in nature, their veracity did not particularly matter since the "supernatural threats" led to Byrne being convinced to give her the money. She went on to wisely muse that, while Paget may claim to be in touch with those in the realm of the afterlife, "her objective was far more worldly in nature: to enrich herself by manipulating a vulnerable man whose buttons she knew how to press."