Deferred sentence for teenager who stalked and threatened female journalists

The "high functioning" boy, who wants to be a journalist, had been barred from Twitter 150 times under various aliases

Judge Paul Kelly described a psychiatric report as "quite alarming reading". File photo: iStock

An obsessive teenage stalker has been given a six-month deferred sentence and supervised probation for "harrowing" online harassment of a BBC reporter and threats to disfigure an RTÉ journalist.

The Dublin youth appeared again at the Dublin Children's Court on Thursday. In September, the 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to harassing BBC News Northern Ireland's Aileen Moynagh between October 2020 and February last year.