Med student dropout sent threatening letters to college staff

A Cork medical school dropout who sent threatening letters to 10 of his past supervisors and tutors at the Royal College of Surgeons has been given a three-year suspended sentence.

Colin Joyce, aged 34, was angry that the college had refused him re-admission to allow him complete his medical degree after he had attempted, over the course of four years, to complete his fourth year.

He ultimately left due to mental health difficulties in 2007.

In 2012, Joyce started to contact a number of doctors, professors, and staff by letter and threatened the recipients that he would release confidential information regarding 1,300 patients and have their details posted on the Wikipedia website.

Joyce included personal information about the doctors themselves in each letter. He told one he was sorry to hear her sister had died recently of ovarian cancer and he had information about another man’s wife and children, which the man found alarming.

He wrote that he felt there was a conspiracy against him and said he was working with “others abroad” so even if he were to be “locked up” the information would still be released.

Joyce at times demanded amounts of cash while other letters insisted on his re-admittance into the college and regularly threatened to release this confidential information.

He said he knew “heavy individuals” around Dublin and had “a friendship” with the Taliban and he would get local paramilitaries to put together a bomb.

He also claimed he had the power to bring about the closure of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Joyce, of The Kingsley, Carrigrohane Rd, Cork, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 10 sample counts of posting a letter enclosing a grossly offensive and menacing article to various doctors on dates between June 25 and October 8, 2012. He has no previous convictions.

Mícheál O’Higgins, defending, said his client was a psychotically vulnerable man who was experiencing emotional turmoil and had chronic intense feelings of anger and bitterness.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Joyce to three years in prison, suspended in full on condition he undergo probation supervision for 12 months and not enter the college or approach or contact any of its staff.