Amanda Brunker 'numb and exhilarated' as stalker jailed

Extra.ie​

a day ago

Broadcaster Amanda Brunker has broken her silence after a convicted rapist who threatened and harassed three female Sunday World journalists was sentenced to 11 years behind bars.
Mark McAnaw, previously of Letterkenny, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty to the harassment of Nicola Tallant, Amanda Brunker and Deirdre Reynolds on various dates in August 2023.
Mother-of-two Amanda, who was in court on Thursday as 53-year-old McAnaw was led away in handcuffs, spoke to Extra.ie directly after sentencing, saying she feels both 'numb and exhilarated' at the outcome of what was a harrowing ordeal. Amanda Brunker. Pic: Collins Courts
Journalist and popular Irish personality's seven-year stalking nightmare began back in 2017 when, unbeknownst to her, Mr McAnaw developed a dangerous fixation on her from his jail cell, where he was serving a lengthy term for a violent kidnapping, rape and assault of a woman.
McAnaw has a litany of previous convictions, which include a conviction of raping a foreign student in Donegal in October 2010.
He was convicted by a jury in 2012 of orally raping and sexually assaulting the student. He was sentenced to nine years in prison for this offence. Amanda Brunker and Deirdre Reynolds. Pic: Collins Courts
McAnaw also has a 1989 conviction for kidnapping and convictions for assault causing actual bodily harm from a Derry court in 2011.
He also attacked a woman in her home days after they had gone on a date together in April 2018. In this incident, he was armed with a large kitchen knife when he forced his way into a woman's home.
McAnaw received an eight-year, four-month sentence for this in June 2023, backdated to 2018, when he went into custody. Amanda Brunker. Pic: Collins Courts
It was during the 2018 prison term that McAnaw's obsession with Amanda began to ferment.
'He was in jail already for a really violent rape and kidnapping,' Amanda told Extra.ie. 'And when he was in jail, he was reading my column in The Sunday World, and he developed a fixation on me and two other journalists at the paper.'
Upon his release, McAnaw's jail obsession followed him into the real world, where he actively sought out Amanda and initiated contact, sending her sexually explicit and threatening messages on social media.
'He started sending me messages through Facebook, and they were very, very explicit messages,' she said.
'He was threatening to kill me, saying he wanted to rape me and sending me other threats of what he was going to do to me through private message on Facebook. So, yeah, he's a really, really dangerous man and he is a threat to all women, not just me,' Amanda told us.
Amanda once again immediately reported the messages, and gardai quickly identified Mr McAnaw.
'It was terrifying. It was all kind of surreal, as in you think 'how can this be happening?''
An extrovert by nature, Amanda said the most terrifying part of the entire seven-year ordeal was that she had no idea who this man was or, more pertinent, what he actually looked like.
'And that was the most terrifying thing, because, you know, he was protected because of GDPR and there was no photograph of him anywhere,' she said.
'Nobody could give me a photograph. I couldn't give a photograph to show my kids. I couldn't show my family or my friends to say 'hey this is somebody we need to look out for'.
'There was only one photograph of him from a grainy CCTV image taken from a cafe that was posted on Facebook, and I had no clue how old it was. I think it was about 20 years old. But you wouldn't recognise him. He could have been standing beside me and I wouldn't have even known, which was terrifying.'
As a result of daily facing an unknown assailant, Amanda is now calling for the mandatory release of mug shots of all dangerous offenders.
'There is innocent until proven guilty and all that. But this person is most definitely not innocent. And I had no way of knowing what he looked like. So yeah, if someone is found guilty and sent to jail for crimes like this, they should have their mug shots out there for all the world to see.'
As a result of living in perpetual fear, Amanda, not knowing where danger lurked, said she had to change her routine and even curtailed her social engagements.
'I gave a statement about him back ages ago, and then he got convicted for something else,' said Amanda.
But if she had thought her predator had been stopped in his tracks, her worst fears were very soon to be once again realised.
'So then I was horrified when I saw messages from him again in August of 2023. He started messaging me again publicly on Facebook. And I just knew this guy just wasn't going to stop.'
Amanda once again notified the authorities, who she says acted immediately to ensure McAnaw was apprehended before he could seriously harm Amanda or any other woman whom he set his sights on.
'This is the mad thing that there's nothing in place that you don't have to be notified when the predator is back out.'
Upon his release, McAnaw upped his attempts to make physical contact with Amanda.
'He had already done another three and a half years in jail, and then when he came back out again, he was back sending me messages and trying to get in contact with me. He was asking people where I lived, he was trying to get my number. It was very unnerving.'
Thanks to a combination of Amanda's indefatigable nature and her persistence not to be victimised, the professionalism of the gardai and the severity of the courts system, Amanda said she finally got to face down her stalker in person.
'I had to walk by him in court, and that was very, very unnerving. He is exceptionally, exceptionally dangerous. And I've been told that he is definitely one of the most dangerous that they've seen in recent times.
'So, like it's unnerving, but I have to take all the positives out of it, and I'm trying to, because I have to be. You just can't keep living in fear, and I have to try and get on with things. But you know, today was, it was such a lovely feeling to know that he is locked up.'
She added: 'Before the sentencing, I felt numb, I felt sick, I felt enormous trepidation because I just didn't know, for how much longer, you know, was he going to get out for time served? Was he going to get a lenient sentence?
'So yeah, I feel very lucky, and I know that there are, there are other cases and other people who haven't been as lucky. And I'm very aware of that.'
Having come through her nightmare, Amanda said that she would wholeheartedly encourage anyone in a similar situation to summon the strength and see the judicial process through, no matter how daunting or isolating it may feel.
'You have to try, try, try. No matter how hard it is, you just have to keep going and getting up and putting one foot in front of the other and keep on going.'
And as for Amanda, true to her social butterfly form, she is out tonight for a fear-free celebratory tipple.
'I'm going out to meet friends tonight, for a drink, or perhaps two,' she said.