Woman: Fake website left me feeling degraded

A Cork woman was humiliated and distressed to find that a fake website circulated to more than 1,000 men showed legitimate pictures of her interspersed with lewd and sexual pictures of a pornographic model which gave the impression it was her.

A six-month jail sentence was imposed yesterday on the man responsible for this harassment and a related harassment which saw up to 30 men calling to another house believing it was the home of the young woman depicted on the website.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a one-year sentence with half of it suspended on Stephen Downey, aged 24, Lissadell, Maryborough Hill, Douglas, Cork, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. Downey wept and was visibly distressed on being sentenced.

The woman, a first class honours graduate, said in her victim impact report: “I worked so hard to build my career but Stephen Downey was trashing it — exploiting me and my image online. I felt in great danger. What if one of these men identified me on a night out? I feel now that I have to continue to prove myself even though I have done nothing wrong. It has been very very difficult.”

She said she felt degraded and her self-esteem was shattered; she felt used in a vile manner and felt ashamed and did not know why Downey had done this to her as she had never done anything to him.

Sinead Behan, defending, said the accused was totally remorseful but at the time, had disassociated from reality and did not appreciate the effect of his actions on real people. She said he had been bullied and felt social isolation and depression and was a vulnerable person.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said: “This was a total misuse of social media and he exposed these women to terrible experiences out of some kind of voyeurism and disconnection. I accept he is a young man with problems and is showing some better insight into the problems now. He previously got suspended sentences for sexual assaults. ”

Downey admitted three counts of harassment contrary to the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act between March and August last year.

Detective Garda Aonghus Cotter outlined the background to the allegations.

He said Downey set up a fictitious social media identity and used pictures from the actual Facebook page of a young woman he knew.

These pictures were interspersed with sexual images taken from various pornographic sites. The fake site was then shared with more than 1,000 men along with written communications of a sexual nature.

Many of those who received such social media communications enquired about meeting the young woman and up to 30 men were told that she lived at a particular house. In fact, another woman lived there with her partner. This couple, the subject of the second and third harassment complaints, had men calling to their house, one of whom appeared to be on drugs and another who parked outside their home for three hours.

When Downey was identified as the person overseeing all of this activity, he made full admissions.