A 45-year-old man who threatened to share intimate images and videos of a woman with whom he had a short relationship has been jailed for ten months.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the victim, told gardaí he was annoyed and was drinking when he sent a voice message to the woman threatening to put the images on Facebook and send them to her mother and her social worker.
The woman immediately reported the matter to gardaí who found the man in a city centre pub where the woman told him he would be. He apologised and said he had been “saying the wrong things”.
The court was told he had been in a relatively short relationship with the woman in her 20s which had ended in November 2021.
A month later there had been an exchange of “unsavoury” text messages between the two on a particular day when he sent a voice message effectively threatening to send the images and videos to others.
Defence Counsel Ger Small said her client had immediately apologised for the offence.
She said he was pleading guilty despite the fact that the voice message which had been played to him by gardaí after his arrest had since been lost and could not have been used against him if the matter had gone to trial.
She said her client was “in a very bad place” at the time of the offence and had serious alcohol and drug problems.
He had left school after primary and had lost both parents in tragic circumstances. He had suffered mental health issues requiring admissions to various psychiatric units, she said. He is currently homeless but had since engaged with his probation officer and was hoping to take up a course.
He had a number of unrelated previous convictions from the District Court, the court heard.
A victim impact statement was not read out in court.
Judge Martin Nolan said the plea of guilty in circumstances where evidence had been lost was very valuable. He had also shown remorse.
However, the judge said it was a very serious matter. “To threaten a person in this way is very disconcerting. Everyone is entitled to their privacy,” he said.
He imposed a sentence of 20 months, suspending the final ten months on condition that he be of good behaviour after his release.
