Former garda who incited men to rape colleague in her home jailed for seven years
Flanagan pleaded guilty to two counts of inciting two men to rape the woman on dates between November and December 2020
Shane Flanagan
Shane Flanagan (39), with an address in Co. Clare, impersonated the woman on a fetish website and on Facebook and engaged in graphic online discussions with users of these sites about sexual violence, rape, cannibalism, torture and physical violence.
He also shared the woman's personal information including her address, photos of her and her daughters and screenshots from the Strava app, showing her running route.
Flanagan pleaded guilty to two counts of inciting two men to rape the woman on dates between November and December 2020. He further pleaded guilty to six counts of endangering the woman and her daughters between 2018 and 2020, and to one count of possession of four images of child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography, on January 7, 2021. He has no previous convictions.
Imposing sentence at the Central Criminal Court today, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon said Flanagan's offending showed a 'breath-taking disregard' for the safety of the injured parties and that he would have been 'more alive to these dangers' due to his background as a garda.
She imposed a sentence of eight years with the final 12 months suspended on strict conditions for three years.
Shane Flanagan
News in 90 Seconds - Tuesday, July 29
The judge said that 'extremely graphic and disturbing' online conversations had been outlined to the court. She said the offending was an 'egregious breach of trust' which betrayed years of friendship and placed the woman and her daughters in physical danger. 'Thankfully no acts of violence took place,' she said.
Ms Justice Creedon noted that the offending was 'not a short lapse of judgement', but occurred over a period of several years. She said the offending was 'cold', 'calculated' and 'motivated by satisfying his own sexual interests and gratification'.
The judge set a headline sentence of 10 years in relation to the incitement of rape charges, then said the court had considered the mitigation including Flanagan's guilty pleas. She imposed concurrent sentences of six years on the endangerment charges and three years on the charge of possession of child sexual abuse material. Read more
Having imposed sentence, Ms Justice Creedon directed Flanagan to place himself under the supervision of the Probation Service following his release and she backdated the sentence to June 30 last, when he went into custody.
Breffni Gordon BL, defending, told the court that his client has been 'quite distressed' since the last hearing and was recently an inpatient at a psychiatric hospital.
He asked the court to recommend his client receive appropriate psychiatric care, particularly during the initial phase of his sentence. Ms Justice Creedon agreed to make this recommendation.
The court was previously told that the woman wishes to retain her anonymity, but does not object to Flanagan being identified.
Reading her victim impact statement at an earlier sentence hearing, the woman said Flanagan was a fellow garda who was supposed to uphold the same professional values. She said he was someone she had trusted and called a friend.
She said he not only betrayed her, but took her career. She said Flanagan 'plotted' to have her and her daughters attacked, and that he 'planned for men to find us and carry out unspeakable acts of violence'.
She said this was a 'betrayal beyond words', that she no longer feels safe in her own home and her trust in others has been damaged.
She said no sentence could undo the harm caused and told the court this was not just a 'betrayal of friendship' but a 'calculated predatory act of violence that has left lifelong scars' for her and her daughters.
Detective Garda Paul English previously told Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, prosecuting, that the woman and Flanagan were friends and there had never been any romantic or sexual history between them.
He said the woman was extremely shocked to find out that Flanagan was the one who had been impersonating her online. 'If you gave me a list of 500 names of people that could have done this to me, I would never have guessed it was him,' the woman told the investigation.
The court heard that the woman became aware that someone was using her image on a fetish website, Fetlife.com, after a user of that website contacted her on her genuine Facebook page in 2020.
In December 2020, she created an account on Fetlife and, while pretending to be male, interacted with the user pretending to be her who shared her personal information. The woman then made a complaint to gardai.
Evidence was heard of an extensive investigation, which connected the Fetlife account impersonating the woman to Flanagan.
His home was searched on January 17, 2021, and items included a phone and laptop was seized. Flanagan provided passwords for these devices and for an email address.
The investigation found that Flanagan had created a false Facebook account in the name of 'Laura O'Riordan', using the injured party's information.
Det Sgt English told the court that hundreds of images of the woman, including 219 doctored ones were found as part of the search. Four images of child sexual abuse material were found on the laptop.
Two of the users of Fetlife.com who interacted with Flanagan provided statements to gardai. Flanagan incited them to break into the woman's house and rape her.
Both genuinely believed they were talking to a woman who had a fetish for 'CNC' or consensual non consent. These situations involve one party, typically female, agreeing for another party to carry out a rape at an agreed location.
Ms Lawlor told the court these men believed they were speaking to the woman, who was agreeing to them individually coming to her home to rape her and which she had consented to in advance.
Details of these sexually graphic conversations were read to the court. One of these men, who lives in the UK, told gardai that this person must 'really hate' the victim to go to these lengths.
In a victim impact statement, the woman's older daughter said Flanagan had been a family friend for a long time and she now looks back on past events wondering if she missed any signs.
She said she experienced a loss of trust in others and spoke of the impact of this going on in the background while attending school. She also spoke of experiencing nightmares and noted that her mother had tried to protect them from finding out what had happened for as long as possible.
Flanagan was interviewed six times in February 2022. He made some admissions, including to owning the devices. He confirmed knowing the woman and when material was put to him replied 'everything you've shown me there, that was me'.
He apologised to the woman and admitted communicating with between 20 and 30 individuals while pretending to be the woman. He described it as 'harmless roleplay'.
Det Sgt English agreed with Padraig Dwyer SC, defending, that his client retired from the gardai in March this year and had an 'unblemished' record of service.
Testimonials from family members, probation and psychological reports were handed to the court.
Mr Dwyer read a letter of apology from his client to the court. Flanagan said he felt 'deep guilt, shame' and understands now that 'I did not just cause fear, I destroyed a sense of fear, dignity and trust' and stole the victims' peace of mind.
He said 'this has been a sobering and painful experience for me' and that he is seeking help to address his issues.
Defence counsel asked the court to take into account his client's guilty pleas, the contents of the reports and that his time in custody will be more onerous as he was a garda. Flanagan was suspended from the force in 2021, retiring in March this year.
Mr Dwyer noted the reports refer to his client suffering with suicidal ideation. His client is assessed at low to medium risk of re-offending.
Counsel said a protective factor is 'the absence of hostility to women' and his client's actions appeared 'rooted in imagination or fantasy, not reality', though in this case, the actions 'did translate into more than just a fantasy'.
Flanagan pleaded guilty to two counts of inciting two men to rape the woman on dates between November and December 2020.
He also pleaded guilty to six counts of endangerment, in that he intentionally or recklessly engaged in impersonating the woman in Facebook communications, and on the website FetLife.com and in which communications invited persons unknown to visit violence upon her and two others, thereby creating a substantial risk of death or serious harm on dates between 2018 and 2020.
Flanagan also pleaded guilty to one count of possession of four images of child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography, on January 7, 2021.
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He wished the victim well for the future and said in the circumstances, the court would also wish Yungman's family well. 'They are not responsible for what happened and they are patently decent people,' the judge said. Additional evidence Det Gda Sullivan told Ms Rowland that during the Dublin trip, having initially had said 'no' to having sex with Yungman without a condom, the woman ultimately did have sex with him after they had some alcohol together. She told Yungman the next morning that she had regretted that and told him it would not happen again. He replied 'okay' and began touching her. She said she didn't want to do anything but he told her to shush, that he would not doing anything she did not want. The woman tried to get up but Yungman turned her around so that her back was facing up and she was face down on the sofa. They had previously arranged a safe word between them and despite the woman saying no and using the safe word a number of times, Yungman had sex with the woman. He told her to move and she said she didn't want to do that. She was feeling tired and he instructed her to go on his lap. He told her he wanted her to feel the same pleasure before he brought her into the bedroom and showed her a condom. She said no that she was too tired but he kept trying and she asked him to put it on him. He took the condom from her and placed it under the pillow. She continued to tell Yungman to stop. She told him she did not want to engage in any other sexual activity. Det Gda Sullivan said Yungman put his hands around the woman's neck and was squeezing very hard. She tried to keep his arms away from her but she could not move out. She later said she wasn't strong enough. Yungman tried to turn her over and told her 'that's my girl, that's my girl' before he raped her. The woman later told gardaí she could not cope with it and asked him to 'please stop' telling him 'my body can not take it'. Yungman said he would give her a break and they could go back to it later. The woman later told gardaí that during the Paris trip, when she had also passed out by Yungman holding her neck, her mind was in a mess afterwards and she had not realised she had passed out. Yungman asked the woman if she liked it. She was confused and didn't want to ask. She slept and there was more sexual activity afterwards. She later told him in Paris that she had been scared by the earlier incident. He said it was normal and one could get addicted to feelings such as this. She changed the subject as she felt he was trying to encourage her to go again. Lorcan Staines SC, defending, read a letter of apology from his client into the record in which Yungman apologised for the pain he had caused the victim and her loved ones. He said he was so ashamed of himself and 'the choices that I made that have brought you here'. He described how his parents are not wealthy people and they have put all their savings into funding his defence. He said he has 'shattered my family' and they will never be the same again. He apologised again for 'the atrocities I have caused you'. 'I will never forgive myself. I pray every day that God will bless you and help you move on. I am so sorry. I am so sorry,' Yungman wrote. Staines said that his client has qualified as an emergency medical technician and has worked as a paramedic. He was working as a real estate agent at the time of their meeting in 2018. He asked the court to accept that Yungman consented to his return to Ireland and never applied for bail. Staines accepted that his client initially denied the offences, but said he co-operated with the garda investigation and ultimately pleaded guilty. He said he is from a good respectable family and Justice Hunt interjected – 'the one thing he is fortunate in'. Counsel said it had been a positive interaction in Paris but acknowledged that 'license to do one thing is not license to do another' before he acknowledged there was 'no question that there was an absence of consent'. Further victim impact statement She said she decided to report the rape to the gardaí and knew this meant she would have to tell her sister. 'I couldn't speak the words about being choked, every time I spoke the words out of my mouth I felt it happening again, my mind was protecting myself from the pain again,' the woman continued. She described the following examination at the sexual assault treatment unit as being made feel like she was a science project, describing it as 'inhuman' and 'invasive'. She said she told the nurse in the SATU that she had been choked and raped and that was the first time she had mentioned the fact that she had been choked. She said the trip to Paris was her first trip on her own and she was excited and 'super proud of myself'. 'I felt self empowered, safe and confident. I met some lovely people,' she said. She spoke about meeting Yungman. She said he was very friendly and seemed good company. She said they chatted and she felt safe and secure. 'I felt ashamed looking back for believing him and spending time with him'. The woman said when she met Yungman in Dublin she felt as if she was 'falling in love'. 'Only now, seven years later that I can say out loud that night I was raped by him. I understood in that moment. I knew instantly that I had been raped. It was like something in me had died in that moment. My body felt like it was not my own anymore,' the woman said. She said retreated into a shell and felt dirty the next day. She tried to clean herself internally and began to have a panic attack. She said it was her first panic attack. The woman said she ultimately returned to Brazil but struggled with the return of 'a lot of feelings'. She said she thought it easier not to live and questioned the meaning of life. 'I felt I did not belong here,' the woman said. She described engaging in dysfunctional relationships, her anxiety and panic attacks got worse and she knew she needed professional help. 'I know now that every problem in my life at that time, the root of it was the rape. The other things were just a distraction from the rape,' she said. She said experienced mood swings and lost her faith in God. She said beforehand she was spiritual and she would always pray for help but she thought 'no God would let this happen to a woman'. The woman said she began to self harm and while driving thought if she swerved or accelerated would it be enough to kill her. She thought while peeling a fruit if she put the knife into her throat. She said she had never experienced these feelings before the rape. She said had no self love, no confidence. 'I was insecure and disconnected to myself.' She said experienced trouble sleeping and eating. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
