Harassed female with explicit texts

‘NAIVE’ PORTMAGEE MAN SENT FEMALE EXPLICIT TEXTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

A PORTMAGEE man has agreed to pay €4,000 in compensation after sending a series of sexually explicit texts as well as photos of his penis to a female via Facebook Messenger.

Denis O’Connell (aged 21), Ardcost, Portmagee, appeared at Thursday’s Cahersiveen District Court charged with harassment of a female by persistently communicating with her on dates between December 13, 2015 and April 6, 2016.

The court heard that this was unwanted contact as the injured party was unknown to him and the messages were of a “deeply sexually explicit” nature.

“Was this communication unwanted from the word go, unreciprocated?” Judge James O’Connor queried, to which Detective Garda Richard Naughton replied, “yes”.

Detective Naughton said that initial correspondence included comments such as “Hey sexy” and “Can I ride you”, to which the victim replied: “Go away you freak”.

A follow up comment stated: “Sorry do you have any friends up for the ride?”.

The contact continued for four months with Detective Naughton stating that there were over 100 communications in total from the defendant, including “a couple of obscene photos of the defendant’s genitals”.

“Was the contact explicit in a nasty way,” the judge asked, and Detective Naughton replied: “Well there were pictures of his penis.”

Mr O’Connell has no previous convictions and has been considered of no threat previously, the detective said, adding that there were no specific threats made in any of the communications.

Solicitor Brendan Ahern said the first contact was made in December 2015 and there were six separate dates after that with approximately 10 messages at a time.

Mr Ahern argued that it wasn’t the most severe case of sexual harassment that the court had heard and all communication stopped in March 2016.

He added that there was a certain naivety shown by the defendant, suggesting that he wasn’t aware of the consequences as he had shown his face early in the communication.

“He showed more than that,” the judge retorted before suggesting that compensation be offered.

The defendant offered €2,000, to which the judge stated that the sum won’t go too far.

“Maybe she should have stopped it in a more direct fashion or reported it earlier, but there was a lot of contact from his side,” the judge added.

Mr O’Connell then handed €3,000 into the court and agreed to hand over a further €1,000 to finalise the matter at Cahersiveen District Court on January 11.