'It looks pretty bleak' - Cork woman faces €26k legal bill for injunction against stalker

Laura O’Connell and former Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien had been victims of Sonya Egan's campaign of harassment

Laura O’Connell: 'The courts need to do much better for victims. It’s not just the legal fees, it’s all the health fees I’ve accrued as a result of what was done to me.' Picture: Cork Courts Limited

A woman who suffered a campaign of harassment and intimidation has had a judgment issued against her for legal costs she accrued in trying to restrain her harasser. 

Laura O’Connell is facing legal bills of €26,000 as a result of taking out a civil injunction against Sonya Egan, The Lawn, Lios Cara in Killeens, Co Cork, who has been jailed for two years for the campaign of harassment. 

Former Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien had also been a victim of Egan and her conviction took the two cases into account.

Now it has emerged that Laura O’Connell is being pursued for the €26,000 it cost her to take out the injunction in 2019 and for repeated court appearances every time Egan broke the injunction and kept harassing her. 

Cork Circuit Court ordered Egan to pay Ms O’Connell €25,000 towards her legal costs but no money was ever paid.  Now, Ms O’Connell’s solicitor has been granted a judgement against his former client for the fees that have gone unpaid. 

Laura O’Connell told the Mick Clifford podcast that she is co-ordinating with the office of Cork City Sheriff to see how she can repay the debt.

“I am left with the legal bill I can’t afford to pay,” she told the podcast. 

“I’m not working the 40 to 50 hours I should be. 

This has destroyed me mentally, combatting it all has made me unwell so I’m not earning to the capacity I could be earning at. 

"The solicitor has decided to execute a judgment against me. 

"This is after four years of being bullied and harassed and now I have this fear of the sheriff coming to the door. I don’t own a property, I rent. My car is a 2010 model. Look, I’m sure I will get my life back on track but right now it looks pretty bleak.”

She said that her experience as a victim of crime in the criminal justice system was not pleasant. 

“The courts need to do much better for victims. It’s not just the legal fees, it’s all the health fees I’ve accrued as a result of what was done to me.”

In her victim impact statement at Egan’s sentencing hearing, Ms O’Connell said that Egan posed as a member of several trustworthy professions to vulnerable people.

“She is a menace to society and one that I was and am not being protected from. How is society being protected from Sonya Egan? A person who takes no heed of undertakings to Gardaí, injunctions, and bail conditions.

"She has never showed remorse and to this day still makes it clear she has an agenda to continue her behaviour. After her plea of guilty, she contacted several reporters to talk about the case and its victims.”

Laura O’Connell is this week’s guest on the Mick Clifford podcast.