TV star Daphney Sanasie bombarded celebrity chef Dylan McGrath with nuisance phonecalls, court told

RTÉ First Dates star Daphney Sanasie reportedly bombarded celebrity chef Dylan McGrath with nuisance phonecalls and disturbing messages including texts about “demons and souls” because she thought it was funny.

The 26-year-old model and student from South Africa, who has an address at Jamestown Rd, in Dublin 8, pleaded guilty yesterday to harassing Dylan McGrath aged 39, from September 9 until November 21, 2015.

Dublin District Court heard she kept pestering the Belfast-born Masterchef judge after they had gone on two dates in early 2015.

Mr McGrath told reporters “I’m glad it’s over” after Sanasie was remanded on bail pending her sentence hearing next month.

The court heard he felt threatened and in fear and “her behaviour was not normal” but she confessed to gardaí she did it to annoy him and she thought it was funny.

Judge Michael Walsh adjourned the case until February 17 to consider what penalty he will impose on Sanasie, who plans on leaving Ireland soon.

At an earlier stage, it had been indicated that she would contest the charge but, just before the trial was about to begin, the court heard that a guilty plea was being entered.

Seamus Clarke, prosecuting, told the court that Mr McGrath is a well-known chef and owner of restaurants in Dublin who has also appeared on Masterchef. The harassment was principally via phonecalls, text messages, and via WhatsApp messages, he said.

Mr McGrath told Garda Kelly that he had been introduced to Sanasie by a mutual friend in December 2014. On February 7, 2015, they met for the first time and their second date was a week later, on Valentine’s Day.

The court heard that, from then on, he had no personal contact with her but there was contact by texting and WhatsApp messages and phonecalls. After that, the contact was mostly from her but intermittently contact came from him.

Garda Kelly agreed Mr McGrath had become “concerned at the tenor” of some of the messages particularly in March 2015 when he told her to stop texting him.

The court was furnished with printouts of the messages. Mr Clarke told Judge Walsh that one message from Mr McGrath said “Stop texting” followed by another, “Stop texting me” and he referred to not having patience for the silliness of her messages.

From September 9 until November 21, there were 120 texts, WhatsApp messages, and phonecalls.