By Eimear Dodd
A man has been jailed for three years for harassing his then-girlfriend and threatening to share intimate images of her.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the then 47-year-old man and the woman (then 20) met on an online dating site during the summer of 2019 and started a relationship.
He later threatened to send intimate images of her to her parents.
He also made threats to send the photos and items, including a vibrator, to the woman’s younger brother, persistently emailed her and made multiple calls to her workplace.
The now 52-year-old with addresses in Co. Dublin, and in Co. Wicklow pleaded guilty to harassment on dates between June 2020 and July 2021.
He also pleaded guilty to threatening to distribute or publish an intimate image of the injured party on a date in July 2021.
He can’t be named to protect the woman’s right to anonymity.
He received a four-year sentence, with the final 12 months suspended on strict conditions.
Emer Ní Chúagáin BL, prosecuting, read the woman’s victim impact statement to the court, in which she said the man took sexual photos of her without her consent.
She said she asked him to delete them when she found out, and he told her if she didn’t do what he wanted her to do, he would send them to her parents, younger brother and her boss.
She said that the man had “driven up and down the road” looking for her home, then drove up the driveway before telling her that he’d found the address and making threats.
The woman said she felt scared when she heard a car drive by the house.
She said the man’s constant calls to her workplace were disruptive, and she got into trouble, ultimately losing her job.
She described feeling fear, anxiety and stress as result of the man’s actions.
The investigating garda told Judge Elma Sheahan that the woman is now living abroad and is too scared to come back, even to visit her family.
Judge Sheahan said it was “striking” to the court that in the emails sent to the woman the man appeared to “enjoy toying with the complainant’s emotions by issuing threats of what he would do if she did not comply with his demands”.
She said the man’s offending “must be viewed in the context of the age disparity”, which was aggravating, along with the effects on the woman and the “repeated interference” with her work and home life.
The judge said she had taken into account the man’s guilty plea, though noted it “in the context of the evidence available to the prosecution at the time”.
She imposed a global sentence of four years, suspending the final 12 months on the condition that the man keep the peace and be of good behaviour, noting his efforts towards rehabilitation.
The court heard that the man is willing to abide by an order have no contact with the woman in perpetuity and as part of the finalisation of sentence, Judge Sheahan imposed this.
An investigating garda outlined that the woman shared some intimate images of herself with the man in the early stages of their relationship on the understanding they would not go any further than him.
Her parents became aware of the relationship in December 2019, and were concerned about the age gap between the man and the woman.
They believed the relationship ended at this point, but it continued.
Around February 2020, the woman told the man she couldn’t see him for a bit. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the woman was working from home and had a family member who was immuno-compromised.
The man persistently asked her to meet up, and became angry and upset that she was not willing to do this.
The woman felt manipulated into sending intimate photos to him to maintain the peace.
The court was told that over the course of 12 to 15 months, if the woman refused to see him, the man would makes threats to expose intimate images.
She felt she couldn’t end the relationship as he’d ring her persistently, up to 50 times a day, the court heard.
She ended the relationship in June 2021, after her father had seen a message from the man on her phone.
He’d made multiple threats to distribute intimate images of the woman by the time her father saw this message, the court heard.
Around this time, the man started to persistently email the woman with some emails having intimate images of her attached to them.
A sample of these emails was handed to the court and not read aloud. Around 500 emails were sent by the man to the woman between May and early July 2021,with approximately 30 of these containing threats to share intimate photos.
He threatened to send these images to her parents He also said he would send the images, and items such as a vibrator and a thong to her younger brother.
He also said he would put up hundreds of images of her in her hometown, tell her employer that she had a sexually transmitted infection and instruct a solicitor to have her tested for these illnesses.
The court was told that the man had taken a photo of him and the woman performing a sex act, without her consent.
He sent this photo to her and threatened to share it.
He also started calling and sending emails to her workplace.
Between July 7 and 10 2021, he tried to contact her 15 times on a shared landline at her workplace.
She said to tell her manager, as he would hang up if one of her colleagues picked up the phone.
He emailed the woman a photo of a lane near her home on July 8, 2021.
She told gardai she was terrified, realising he was physically outside her home in a vehicle. He started beeping the horn outside her house, which the woman felt was an attempt to draw attention to his presence.
The woman went to gardai as she was concerned about the man’s behaviour.
His home in Wicklow was searched on July 21, 2021 and he accepted ownership of several devices found on the property.
He asked to speak to gardai privately and after caution, admitted threatening to publish the images.
He said he had gone too far and apologised.
He provided gardai with passwords and log in details and was voluntarily interviewed in June 2024.
He has two previous minor road traffic convictions from 2007, but has not come to other garda attention before or since this offending occurred.
The witness agreed with Dean Kelly SC, defending, that his client was co-operative during the search of his home and with the investigation.
It was also accepted that he made admissions during the search and has had no further contact with the woman or her family since then.
The garda also accepted that while the man threatened to share the intimate images, he did not actually do this.
Mr Kelly said he is instructed to apologise on his client’s behalf, adding that his client now has a “clear and shameful sense” of the severity of his actions.
The defendant worked in construction until a workplace accident in 2016.
Mr Kelly said his client has a history of alcoholism, but instructs that he has stopped drinking. He regularly attends AA meetings and acts as a sponsor to others.
Counsel said his client instructs that he struggles to understand or explain how he came to commit these offences, but fully accepts that he did.