WOMAN AWAITS SENTENCING AFTER BREAKING GAG ORDER

A FACEBOOK troll who was last year hit with a five year gagging order aimed at preventing her from making any online reference to her former boyfriend’s current partner has now been convicted of breaching the ban.

Maureen Curoe (42), whose address was given as Pilot Street, Belfast, was in 2016 ordered not to refer to Coleraine woman Yvonne Hegarty on social media sites like Facebook.

The internet ban lasts until 2021, but on Friday a judge at Coleraine Magistrates Court found her guilty of breaching a restraining order, as Curoe (right) had made reference to Ms Hegarty on Facebook on January 8 this year.

Curoe was not in court on Friday but after reading papers in the case, District Judge Peter King convicted her of the January matter and sentencing will take place later this month. Also later this month Curoe will be sentenced on charges which were related to the original five year online ban.

In March last year a judge at Coleraine Court deferred sentence until this year regarding charges Curoe had pleaded guilty to, involving persistent improper use of the internet for the purpose of

‘causing annoy- ance, inconvenience or needless anxiety’.

Outside court, Ms Hegarty, whose partner Adrian McAleese is a former boyfriend of Curoe’s, previously told how she had been subjected to a long-running cyber hate blitz — sometimes involving up to 50 posts a day.

She said the internet campaign had taken a toll on her health and that of her partner.

Ms Hegarty, who has been a special needs teaching assistant at a secondary school for 20 years, said Curoe set up a number of fake Facebook profiles to attack her.

Yvonne said Curoe’s interventions caused her school to close down its website for a week.

And Yvonne said Curoe also attempted to destroy her name in connection with a charity which takes children to Lapland.