‘I felt violated’: girls’ Facebook snaps uploaded on to porn site

A YOUNG woman has spoken out about the ‘incredibly violating’ ordeal she and 18 other teens were put through when their Facebook photos were uploaded to a porn site.

Daire Hickey-McGovern was 17 when she was told by a friend that her photo was seen on the adult website, along with photos of other girls from her hometown of Shannon, Co. Clare.

The 21-year-old said that despite the trauma she and the other girls experienced, she feels that the judicial system did not take them seriously.

The photos uploaded to the sites showed Ms Hickey-McGovern from the shoulders up, smiling, and were not sexually suggestive, but were accompanied by ‘graphic, incestuous’ captions when they were uploaded on to the site.

As she was a minor in the photos, the porn site removed the photos.

She told the Irish Daily Mail that she was ‘sobbing hysterically’ when she was shown where the photos had appeared, and went to the gardaí after discovering it had happened to a number of her female peers.

Evan Meehan, from Shannon, pleaded guilty in 2016 to uploading the girls’ pictures without their consent.

‘There was no real regard for us’

All of the girls were Facebook friends with Meehan, who was aged 19 and 20 at the time of the offences, and most went to the same secondary school.

Ms Hickey-McGovern told RTÉ’s Liveline yesterday that she felt there was ‘no real regard for the girls involved at all’ during the court case: ‘It was all about him.’

The young woman also hit out at the ‘very upsetting’ and ‘incredibly disheartening’ comments made at a hearing last month by Judge Patrick Durcan, as he praised Meehan’s efforts to rehabilitate.

Judge Durcan said he would adjourn the matter generally, meaning that he will not have a conviction but prosecutors can re-enter the original charges of he offends again.

The judge told Meehan: ‘You have a great life ahead of you.’

He added: ‘There is no conviction or no order against you because the court very much appreciates the very good work you have done...

‘The case is dead if you want to keep it dead.’

Ms Hickey-McGovern also claimed that despite being initially told she may need to testify in the case, she was never told when Meehan’s court appearances were taking place.

Instead, she learned of the outcome of the trial through the media.

‘Had I even known it was on, regardless of not testifying I would have liked to have been there,’ she said.

She continued: ‘When I went to the guards, it was out of my hands.

‘I really trusted the process and the system and I just feel like ... it has failed, and I also feel like there should be more legislation with regards to cybercrime.’

She said that Meehan’s actions were an ‘immense violation personally’.

‘It was traumatising. I remember going on holidays shortly afterwards and being paranoid about people taking photographs: had people seen me?

‘With job applications – if people Google me, is that what they’ll see?

‘It was horrible… I was afraid who had seen the photos.’

Despite her ordeal, she told the Irish Daily Mail that women

‘We shouldn’t be afraid to upload’

should not be afraid to upload photos of themselves to social media.

‘We shouldn’t have to have our accounts totally privatised. My belief is that people just shouldn’t do it in the first place.’

When contacted by the Irish Daily Mail last night, An Garda Síochána said it does not comment on individual cases.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said: ‘Work is under way to progress legislation to reform the law in the area of harassment, with a particular focus on harmful communications online in light of growing concerns in relation to the impact of such behaviours.

‘The department is currently awaiting legal advice from the Office of the Attorney General in relation to the Government amendments to the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017,’ the spokesperson added.

As of last night, the DPP had not replied to this paper’s request for comment.