Former barrister to be sentenced for harrassing younger colleague

A former barrister will be sentenced next week after he left over 120 “creepy” and “sexually intimidating” voicemail messages on a younger colleague’s mobile phone.

Paul McLoughlin (aged 50) of North Circular Road, changed his plea to guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today after two days of evidence during which the jury heard 62 recording of those voicemail messages.

He had initially denied harassing Lorcan Staines (aged 30) between May 1, 2006 and May 14, 2010.

McLoughlin has no previous convictions and although he was barrister at the time, he is no longer practicing.

During the trial last May the jury heard the voicemail messages which Mr Staines had recorded, some of which repeatedly stated: “I want you to be my boyfriend”.

Another message said: “You are not available to take my calls, but you are available to play with my emotions.”

The phrase “fatal attraction” appeared many times in the messages.

Having listened to the messages for over two hours, Mr Staines became visibly upset, saying he felt he had been “goaded” into taking the case to court.

He repeatedly said he found the behaviour “creepy” and also “sexually intimidating”.

Sergeant Brendan Brogan told Paul Carroll BL, prosecuting, that in other voicemail messages McLoughlin told Mr Staines he should look left and right the next time he was in the toilet, while others mentioned his date of birth.

In another message he said he was in Galway walking where Mr Staines once had walked when he attended college there.

Sgt Brogan said in some of the final voicemails, McLoughlin referred to Sgt Brogan as Mr Staines’ “henchman” and “private army”, while others stated “I am outside a restaurant on Dame Street awaiting my arrest” and “I am awaiting Sgt Brogan”.

These voicemails were received after McLoughlin had been questioned on three separate occasions and arrested twice.

The court heard that McLoughlin was warned by gardaí in September 2009 not to contact Mr Staines again after the barrister contacted the gardai following three years of harassment. Mr Staines did not make a formal complaint.

He did however make a formal complaint two months later after McLoughlin continued to harass him and McLoughlin was arrested but not charged.

He was arrested a second time six months later, in May 20011, and charged after he again resumed calling Mr Staines late at night and leaving aggressive voicemail messages on his phone.

At this point McLoughlin was released on bail but that bail was revoked in November 2011 when he continued to harass him.

He went into custody voluntarily but was later released on bail to attend for residential treatment for his alcohol addiction and remained on bail until the trial. He did not contact Mr Staines again.

McLoughlin, who was placed in an orphanage at six months old, took the stand to apologise to Mr Staines for the “unjustified and unnecessary stress and hurt I have caused him and his family”.

“As I sat in court listening to him (Mr Staines) my heart froze. It penetrated into the core of my being. Having listened to the messages I realised the serious grievous wrong I had done,” McLoughlin said.

He explained that he then decided to instruct his barristers that he wished to change his plea of guilty.

McLoughlin told Blaise O’Carroll SC, defending, that he was very ashamed and embarrassed about the evidence given by Sgt Brogan.

He said he had been attending psychiatric services to deal with the feelings he had buried deep down in relation to various issues of his childhood.

McLoughlin said he started to abuse alcohol in his mid-30s when he began to acknowledge the child abuse he suffered and “I took to alcohol to deal with the hurt and the pain”.

He said he has suffered from depression and has been hospitalised twice. He is now taking anti-depressants, mood stabilisers and sleeping tablets.

McLoughlin said he is willing to engage with any alcohol treatment recommended and the Probation Service. He said he hopes to “rejuvenate my legal career in some form in the future”.

He agreed with Mr Carroll in cross-examination that both he and his legal team had the recordings of the voicemail messages before the trial and that Sgt Brogan had played them for him when he first interviewed him in 2010.

“Yes but one of the side effects of my medication is a lack of focus and concentration,” McLoughlin told Mr Carroll.

Mr O’Carroll told Judge Patricia Ryan that his client was “an extremely vulnerable person” who has a distorted reality of life and a problem with paranoia.

“He is a gentle sort of soul in normal life who has a problem with relationships,” counsel submitted.

He said the most recent psychiatric assessment of his client seemed to be optimistic about his progress and added that McLoughlin found the six weeks he spent in custody “a shocking experience”.

Judge Ryan said she needed time to consider the various medical reports and testimonials before the court and adjourned the case to next Wednesday after remanding McLoughlin on continuing bail.