Guilty plea for online torment

A guilty plea was entered yesterday by a young man accused of harassment of a man and two women via social media.

Stephen Downey, aged 24, Lissadell, Maryborough Hill, Douglas, Cork, will be sentenced at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on October 27.

The case was adjourned to yesterday at Cork District Court for service of a book of evidence. However, Joseph Cuddigan, defence solicitor, said the accused wanted to plead guilty to all three charges against him.

Det Gda Aonghus Cotter previously charged Downey with three counts of harassment contrary to the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.

Downey admitted on dates between March and August 2014 he harassed a man and woman at an address in Cork and another woman on dates between July 21 and August 25.

On the application of Inspector Adrian Gamble, Judge Leo Malone sent the case against Downey forward for sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in three months. He was remanded on his own bail.

The allegations were that Downey set up a fictitious social media identity and used pictures from the Facebook page of one of the complainants.

It was alleged these pictures were sent to others via social media and that he also sent pictures of a woman taken from a pornographic site giving the impression they were more pictures of the complainant.

It was alleged a number of people who received such social media communications enquired about meeting her.

Det Gda Cotter said it was then alleged the person operating the fictitious identity gave an actual address in Cork where another woman lived with her partner.

This couple subsequently complained to gardaí that a number of people called to their home when their address was identified via social media.