UNCLE WHO SENT HATE TEXTS TO NIECE JAILED
Victim, 44, driven to brink of suicide
A BUSINESSMAN who subjected his niece to a five- year campaign of hatefilled texts has been jailed for a year.
Martin Hughes sent dozens of sexually explicit and threatening messages to Michelle Doherty between 2011 and 2016 which led her to the brink of suicide.
Ms Doherty, now 44, even moved to Spain to escape the anonymous texts but was left devastated when the 68- year- old began to send them to her there.
The content of the messages was so disturbing that Judge John Aylmer told Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co Donegal he only wanted a f lavour of them.
He said this was one of the worst cases of harassment he has ever had to deal with, saying the texts had a “devastating effect” on Ms Doherty’s life. He also condemned Hughes for showing no signs of remorse and suggesting he was justified in some way for carrying out his campaign.
Some of the text said that Hughes hoped she died of Aids as well as calling her a whore, hooker and a slut.
In another text, he threatened to have her throat slit.
Hughes, of Quigley’s Point, had pleaded guilty to a single DISTRAUGHT Michelle Doherty count of harassment. The court was told of an extensive investigation by gardai to f i nd the i dentity of the owner of the Northern Ireland unregistered phone used to send the texts.
After an exhausting investigation, gardai finally tracked down Hughes who was hiding his phone in a box in his garage.
Judge Aylmer said he had the option to suspend the entire sentence but referred to the fact Hughes showed no remorse and that he blamed a rental dispute and an earli er t ext sent by Ms Doherty about Hughes’ marriage failure.
As the judgment was passed, Ms Doherty, on a videolink
from Spain, wept.