Man to be sentenced for sending hundreds of threatening emails to woman

By Sonya McLean

A man will be sentenced next year after he threatened to publish intimate images of a woman online and then sent her hundreds of degrading and abusive emails – described by a judge as “debasing not only to this woman but all women in general”.

The court heard that Craig Coyle (37) and the woman had been in a relationship for a number of months having met on the dating site Tinder in December 2022. They began their relationship early the following year and broke up in September 2023.

Coyle, of Holly Court, Ballybrack, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to threatening to publish intimate images of the woman without her consent on September 23, 2023.

He also pleaded guilty to harassment on dates between September 2023 and December 2023 and two charges of trespass at the woman’s home on December 23, 2023 and January 19, 2024. He has no previous convictions.

The offence falls under legislation known as Coco’s Law, which criminalises sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent. The penalties include fines and/or up to seven years’ imprisonment.

Judge Pauline Codd read a number of the emails Coyle sent the woman, including one which the prosecution said was too graphic to be read into the record.

After reading this particular email, which Coyle sent to the woman in October 2023 and was entitled ‘Fuck This’ Judge Codd commented: “It is grotesquely pornographic in nature – he is clearly influenced by pornography”.

Sarah Connolly BL, prosecuting, told the court that the woman felt especially threatened by this email as it referenced a disclosure she had made to Coyle about the fact that she had previously been the victim of a serious sexual assault. She felt he was purposefully trying to scare her.

Judge Codd noted that the woman had to purchase a security alarm after she caught Coyle outside her home one winter’s evening in 2023.

“He was prowling around her home in the early hours of the morning,” the judge commented before she described Coyle’s behaviour as “horrendous”.

She said his emails were “debasing not just of this woman but women in general” again stating that they were “pornographic in nature”. She said his unwanted communication to the woman “depicts a dreadful attitude”.

Garda Aaron Bradshaw said that the woman blocked Coyle on a social media app in September 2023 following a nasty message from him but he began then to message her on the payment app Revolut claiming that she owed him money.

She accepted she owed him €200 and said she would pay him back a few days later when she was next paid. He then messaged her via Revolut and threatened to send intimate images of her to her ex-husband.

The woman blocked Coyle on Revolut as soon as she paid over the money she owed him but he then began to email her – amounting to hundreds of abusive and degrading emails over the following months.

He sent a message to her ex-husband on LinkedIn and told him he had material and information that would help him in their mediation.

The court heard that while Coyle apologised for his behaviour in some of these emails and promised never to contact the woman again, he would send more abusive emails again a few days later.

The woman contacted gardaí on December 23, 2022, when Coyle was captured on security cameras peering through her kitchen window just before 6am. She had only set up security cameras in her house the previous day when she thought she had spotted Coyle at her back door.

Coyle was also captured on security cameras outside the woman’s home on January 19, 2024.

The last email Coyle sent the woman was on Christmas Day 2023 in which he told her she was “most fucked up person in the world”. He called her “a pathetic easy tramp, a narcissistic cunt” and said he hoped she would have a great Christmas with her family “because they certainly won’t have with you”.

He said she was a disgrace to all women who have been impacted by rape and sexual assault – referring to the fact that the woman had previously told him she had been the victim of a serious sexual assault. He told her she was “a waste of oxygen”.

The woman read her victim impact statement into the record and said she had gone from someone who didn’t set her alarm at night to someone who “has a house alarm and cameras on 24/7”.

She said her mental health has deteriorated because of Coyle’s “depraved, degrading and disgusting” messages to her. “No one has ever spoken to me with that level of hatred,” she said.

She said her self-esteem went to zero and she began to worry that she lose her job. She also started to worry that Coyle would be there when she came from work.

“I genuinely did not know and still don’t know what this man is capable of,” the woman continued.

“The situation made me distressed every single day,” the woman said outlining that she was unable to sleep for months and she still has nightmares of seeing Coyle looking through her window.

“I am not the person I was when we first met. I am a shell of my former self,” the woman said.

She said Coyle took away her sense of security and outlined how she has installed security cameras in her home. “I check the app hundreds of times a day,” she continued.

“If he had physically hurt me, people would understand the depth of my fear. I wonder if my children would be better off if I was dead,” she concluded.

Judge Codd thanked the woman for her “courage” in delivering her own victim impact statement. “I know it was not easy and I would like to thank you for that,” the judge said.

Cathal McGreal BL, defending, told the court that his client is consenting to a life-long prohibition of communicating with or contacting the victim in any way.

Judge Codd adjourned the case to February 17 next pending an updated report from a psychologist who has recently diagnosed the man as having emotionally unstable personality disorder.

Gda Bradshaw told Ms Connolly that the emails contained various comments such as telling the woman how crazy she is and how she is messed up in the head.

One email threatened to tell her colleague that she abused drugs while another said he would tell her employer that she was lying about her whereabouts on previous days while she was supposed to be working.

In one email, sent on October 1 2023, he recorded an apology and attached a photograph of them together but two days later he again began sending abusive and degrading emails.

Later that month he sent an email asking to meet her and Coyle told her he was obsessed with her. He posted her a notebook which included writings of his thoughts and a scrapbook he had made which included photographs of them together.

On October 14, the woman was matched with a person on dating app and began a conversation with this man – who later transpired to by Coyle. He admitted that he had catfished her in a series of emails which included screenshots of the woman’s conversations with him on the dating app.

Coyle also tagged the woman twice on the app, formerly known as Twitter and in one of these posts he referred to her as a liar. She reported the posts to Twitter and Coyle deleted the posts the same day.

In October, the woman asked Coyle to leave her alone and told him that if he didn’t stop, she would report him to the gardaí.

He continued to email her, accusing her of cheating and lying and requesting an apology from her.

In emails sent to the woman in mid-December he asked her if she was into women and included a screenshot of a conversation he had been having with an unknown woman.

Gda Bradshaw said that same month the woman returned home from work to find that an empty box of the contraceptive pill, which she had earlier discarded in her wheelie bin, sitting at her back door.

She emailed Coyle about this and he replied that he didn’t know what she was talking about.

She received further emails which referred to her physical appearance in derogatory terms.

Gda Bradshaw said on December 22, 2023 she saw feet at her back door. She went outside to the front of her house and thought she saw Coyle walking across the green area in their estate. She bought a security camera that evening.

Coyle was arrested on January 30, 2024 and admitted that he harassed, abused and catfished the woman. He also accepted that he had loitered around her home and got in touch with her ex-husband to “prove some of her lies”.

He accepted that he had gone through her bins and that she had repeatedly asked him not to contact her.

Mr McGreal said in Coyle’s own words he behaved in “a horrible and abusive way”. He said his client had a difficult childhood and has been recently diagnosed as having emotionally unstable personality disorder.

Counsel said this stems from “a deep-seated sense of rejection and neediness” but asked the court to accept that a psychologist report concludes that he does not have a “violent” profile.

Mr McGreal said his client has three children from two different relationships. He is involved in raising these children and supports them financially.

Counsel said at the time of the offending, Coyle was drinking two bottles of wine a day and abusing cocaine. He no longer has issues with drugs or alcohol.

He asked the court to accept that his client has shown “credible remorse” and apologises to the woman for his behaviour.