Former garda who impersonated a colleague online and incited men to come to her home and rape her is jailed for seven years

By Eimear Dodd

A former garda who impersonated a colleague online and incited men to come to her home and rape her has been jailed for seven years.

Shane Flanagan (39), with an address in Co. Clare, impersonated the woman on a fetish website and on Facebook and engaged in graphic online discussions with users of these sites about sexual violence, rape, cannibalism, torture and physical violence.

He also shared the woman’s personal information including her address, photos of her and her daughters and screenshots from the Strava app, showing her running route.

Flanagan pleaded guilty to two counts of inciting two men to rape the woman on dates between November and December 2020.

He further pleaded guilty to six counts of endangering the woman and her daughters between 2018 and 2020, and to one count of possession of four images of child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography, on January 7, 2021.

He has no previous convictions.

Imposing sentence at the Central Criminal Court today, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon said Flanagan’s offending showed a “breath-taking disregard” for the safety of the injured parties and that he would have been “more alive to these dangers” due to his background as a garda.

She imposed a sentence of eight years with the final 12 months suspended on strict conditions for three years.

The judge said that “extremely graphic and disturbing” online conversations had been outlined to the court.

She said the offending was an “egregious breach of trust” which betrayed years of friendship and placed the woman and her daughters in physical danger. “Thankfully no acts of violence took place,” she said.

Ms Justice Creedon noted that the offending was “not a short lapse of judgement”, but occurred over a period of several years.

She said the offending was “cold”, “calculated” and “motivated by satisfying his own sexual interests and gratification”.

The judge set a headline sentence of 10 years in relation to the incitement of rape charges, then said the court had considered the mitigation including Flanagan’s guilty pleas.

She imposed concurrent sentences of six years on the endangerment charges and three years on the charge of possession of child sexual abuse material.

Having imposed sentence, Ms Justice Creedon directed Flanagan to place himself under the supervision of the Probation Service following his release and she backdated the sentence to June 30 last, when he went into custody.

Breffni Gordon BL, defending, told the court that his client has been “quite distressed” since the last hearing and was recently an inpatient at a psychiatric hospital.

He asked the court to recommend his client receive appropriate psychiatric care, particularly during the initial phase of his sentence. Ms Justice Creedon agreed to make this recommendation.

The court was previously told that the woman wishes to retain her anonymity, but does not object to Flanagan being identified.

Reading her victim impact statement at an earlier sentence hearing, the woman said Flanagan was a fellow garda who was supposed to uphold the same professional values.

She said he was someone she had trusted and called a friend.

She said he not only betrayed her, but took her career.

She said Flanagan “plotted” to have her and her daughters attacked, and that he “planned for men to find us and carry out unspeakable acts of violence”.

She said this was a “betrayal beyond words”, that she no longer feels safe in her own home and her trust in others has been damaged.

She said no sentence could undo the harm caused and told the court this was not just a “betrayal of friendship” but a “calculated predatory act of violence that has left lifelong scars” for her and her daughters.

Detective Garda Paul English previously told Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, prosecuting, that the woman and Flanagan were friends and there had never been any romantic or sexual history between them.

He said the woman was extremely shocked to find out that Flanagan was the one who had been impersonating her online.

“If you gave me a list of 500 names of people that could have done this to me, I would never have guessed it was him,” the woman told the investigation.

The court heard that the woman became aware that someone was using her image on a fetish website, Fetlife.com, after a user of that website contacted her on her genuine Facebook page in 2020.

In December 2020, she created an account on Fetlife and, while pretending to be male, interacted with the user pretending to be her who shared her personal information.

The woman then made a complaint to gardai.

Evidence was heard of an extensive investigation, which connected the Fetlife account impersonating the woman to Flanagan.

His home was searched on January 17, 2021, and items included a phone and laptop was seized.

Flanagan provided passwords for these devices and for an email address.

The investigation found that Flanagan had created a false Facebook account in the name of ‘Laura O’Riordan’, using the injured party’s information.

Det Sgt English told the court that hundreds of images of the woman, including 219 doctored ones were found as part of the search.

Four images of child sexual abuse material were found on the laptop.

Two of the users of Fetlife.com who interacted with Flanagan provided statements to gardai.

Flanagan incited them to break into the woman’s house and rape her.

Both genuinely believed they were talking to a woman who had a fetish for ‘CNC’ or consensual non consent.

These situations involve one party, typically female, agreeing for another party to carry out a rape at an agreed location.

Ms Lawlor told the court these men believed they were speaking to the woman, who was agreeing to them individually coming to her home to rape her and which she had consented to in advance.

Details of these sexually graphic conversations were read to the court. One of these men, who lives in the UK, told gardai that this person must “really hate” the victim to go to these lengths.

In one message to this man, Flanagan – pretending to be the woman – said her fantasy was for someone to stalk her, break into her home while she was asleep or kidnap her while she was jogging. Flanagan shared the woman’s address and other information with this user.

Details of Flanagan’s interactions with 12 other users of Fetlife.com, who could not be identified by gardai, were described to the court.

These conversations included graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, rape and cannibalism.

Flanagan, while pretending to be the woman, also asked some users if they were available that night.

Some of these 12 users indicated they lived in Ireland, or in towns or cities near to the woman’s address, the court heard.

Flanagan replied: “Oh cool, you’re not living too far away”, when one man said he lived nearby.

Another user, who also indicated they lived near to the woman replied “good, secure, abandoned buildings to have some fun in”, when Flanagan referred to a particular town.

Under the alias of ‘Laura O’Riordan’, Flanagan engaged in similar conversations using Facebook Messenger and shared photos of the woman and her daughters, her address and other personal information.

One of the exchanges on Facebook outlined a roleplay scenario about the rape and torture of the woman and her daughters while another referred to spiking the children using sleeping tablets.

Det Sgt English said the ‘Laura O’Riordan’ Facebook account came to light during the investigation. Gardai identified that Flanagan reported it to the social media site as a fake account following the search of his home, but Facebook refused to delete it.

Ms Lawlor said the endangerment charges against Flanagan relate to the invitation to these individuals to carry out violence on the woman, which represented a significant risk to her life and those of her children.

In a victim impact statement, the woman’s older daughter said Flanagan had been a family friend for a long time and she now looks back on past events wondering if she missed any signs.

She said she experienced a loss of trust in others and spoke of the impact of this going on in the background while attending school.

She also spoke of experiencing nightmares and noted that her mother had tried to protect them from finding out what had happened for as long as possible.

Flanagan was interviewed six times in February 2022.

He made some admissions, including to owning the devices.

He confirmed knowing the woman and when material was put to him replied “everything you’ve shown me there, that was me”.

He apologised to the woman and admitted communicating with between 20 and 30 individuals while pretending to be the woman.

He described it as “harmless roleplay”.

Det Sgt English agreed with Padraig Dwyer SC, defending, that his client retired from the gardai in March this year and had an “unblemished” record of service.

Testimonials from family members, probation and psychological reports were handed to the court.

Mr Dwyer read a letter of apology from his client to the court.

Flanagan said he felt “deep guilt, shame” and understands now that “I did not just cause fear, I destroyed a sense of fear, dignity and trust” and stole the victims’ peace of mind.

He said “this has been a sobering and painful experience for me” and that he is seeking help to address his issues.

Defence counsel asked the court to take into account his client’s guilty pleas, the contents of the reports and that his time in custody will be more onerous as he was a garda.

Flanagan was suspended from the force in 2021, retiring in March this year.

Mr Dwyer noted the reports refer to his client suffering with suicidal ideation. His client is assessed at low to medium risk of re-offending.

Counsel said a protective factor is “the absence of hostility to women” and his client’s actions appeared “rooted in imagination or fantasy, not reality”, though in this case, the actions “did translate into more than just a fantasy”.

Flanagan pleaded guilty to two counts of inciting two men to rape the woman on dates between November and December 2020.

He also pleaded guilty to six counts of endangerment, in that he intentionally or recklessly engaged in impersonating the woman in Facebook communications, and on the website FetLife.com and in which communications invited persons unknown to visit violence upon her and two others, thereby creating a substantial risk of death or serious harm on dates between 2018 and 2020.

Flanagan also pleaded guilty to one count of possession of four images of child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography, on January 7, 2021.