Former AGSI head 'felt helpless' after online harassment, court hears
In a victim impact statement at Mullingar District Court today, Ms Cunningham said the messages, which were posted publicly and sent privately on the social media platform Twitter, now known as X, left her feeling helpless and powerless.
38-year-old Andrew McGovern, of School Lane, Rathowen, Co Westmeath previously pleaded guilty to harassing Ms Cunningham under Section 4 (1) and (3) of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020.
Ms Cunningham, was general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) when the offences happened over a two-week period in March 2023.
Detective Sergeant Alan Farrell from the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation told Mullingar District Court today that the first set of direct messages were sent privately and were ignored by Ms Cunningham.
He said Ms Cunningham later learned of posts on Mr McGovern's Twitter account about her that were openly accessible containing unfounded claims and allegations being "all swept under the carpet" and his life being ruined.
Detective Farrell said there was no truth in the content.
At sentencing today, Judge Bernadette Owens heard that while the probation report had been received, Mr McGovern's solicitor John Quinn requested more time to discuss to it with his client.
Judge Owens adjourned the case until 4 September for sentencing.
Victim Impact Statement
In a hard hitting victim impact statement, Antoinette Cunningham said the "lies, falsehoods and character destruction" posted online had a profoundly negative effect on her and her family.
"The emotional impact of this crime on me was difficult, I still don't understand why a stranger decided to target me in this way" she said.
"I felt a total violation of my privacy, my character, my integrity, and my sense of personal well-being and peace of mind was fractured as a result of what happened."
Ms Cunningham outlined that she became aware of the allegations posted on a social media platform in March 2023.
She said she tried to have the material removed but was advised by the social media platform that the material did not, in their view, 'violate their rules'."
Ms Cunningham said "this added enormously to the upset and vulnerability" she felt.
"I felt helpless to defend myself or to receive the expected support from the social media platform, there was a personal vilification of me going on, and I was powerless, at that point, to do anything about it."
Ms Cunningham told the court that at the time of the incident, she held the position of general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, a job which carries a significant public profile and role.
She spoke of how difficult it was, in such a busy and demanding job, "to present a façade of normality at work while at the same time trying to deal with this matter".
Ms Cunningham said until today, she has remained a relatively voiceless victim of this crime, to fully respect the investigation and judicial process and she hopes by speaking out, she can encourage others to come forward.
"Online harassment can happen to anyone, in any walk of life and this case, sadly, is a demonstration of the very toxic side of social media, that came into my everyday life and turned, what was a normal evening at home, into a process that is only ending now"
The former AGSI General Secretary criticised the social media platform X saying she finds it "deeply upsetting that something that is a criminal offence in this country is not accepted as a breach of social media rules here".
"I have chosen now, to speak to the court about this matter, to convey my sense of frustration at having to publicly expose myself again as I feel I have no other real choice," Ms Cunningham added.
"To stay silent, I would be doing a disservice to myself but especially to my family and allowing behaviour like this to go unchallenged."
"I genuinely feel it is my civic duty to speak up and voice how this has affected me, so that others may feel empowered to address similar situations and take action for their own safety and wellbeing" she said.
Ms Cunningham also paid tribute to the gardaí involved in the investigation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
Manager sacked after ‘joke' sext on colleague's phone gets reduced WRC award
A tribunal has made a reduced award for losses from unfair dismissal to a manager sacked after he admitted taking a colleague's phone and sending her husband a 'sexually explicit' text message as 'a joke'. In an anonymised decision just published, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) upheld a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against the man's former employer after concluding it was 'too extreme' to declare that the man's conduct was 'at the high end of sexual harassment'. He said he was being made the 'fall guy' for a workplace culture of 'sexual comments and innuendo' at the financial services company as he pleaded to its board to be let keep his €60,000 a year job, the tribunal heard. The tribunal heard that in January 2024, the complainant took one of his direct reports' mobile phones from her desk and sent a 'sexually explicit WhatsApp message to her husband', which the other worker, Ms A, found out about as she left to go home. READ MORE The complainant 'owned up' and claimed it was 'meant to be a joke', the tribunal noted. Ms A raised it with the CEO of the organisation as soon as he returned from leave, telling him she and her husband considered the message 'vulgar and disgusting'. The text of the message was not included in a WRC decision document published on Friday. The CEO called the claimant to a meeting and suspended him with pay a week after the event, the tribunal heard. The tribunal noted the evidence of the CEO that another senior employee, Ms B, who came to the suspension meeting as a witness, remarked afterwards: 'I can't believe this is happening again.' The CEO told the tribunal he had forgotten about a previous similar incident involving the same manager in September 2022, and told Ms B: 'If we're to do anything about this, I need it documented.' Ms B later wrote a letter of complaint setting out that she had left a personal device in the company's finance office when she went on holiday in September 2022 so a colleague could use a banking app installed on it, the tribunal heard. While she was away, the man had posted 'two sexually offensive messages' on her social media account, the complaint letter stated. Ms B made contact with the manager and told him not to use the banking app, as she feared the phone was 'hacked'. The complaint letter set out that the complainant 'pretended to be serious at first, and then he began laughing and [said] he had posted the messages as a joke', the tribunal heard. Ms B wrote in her complaint letter that she was 'extremely annoyed', but after arranging with the CEO for a dedicated mobile phone for the finance office, took the matter no further. Michael Kinsley BL, appearing instructed by Daniel O'Connell of Kean's Solicitors in the matter, told the Commission the company had failed to examine the position advanced by his client about the 'culture and behaviour of staff in the organisation', which he said had been 'treated dismissively' at all stages. Mr Kinsley said the investigation was 'biased and prejudged' and the decision to dismiss 'wholly unfair and disproportionate'. Lauren Tennyson, for the company, instructed by Sarah Conroy of Beale & Co, said the employer took the view that the external investigator had made 'extremely serious' findings at the 'higher end' of sexual harassment and that the complainant's behaviour 'warranted dismissal for gross misconduct'. Adjudication officer Catherine Byrne wrote in her decision: 'I do not wish to minimise the impact that the incidents had on the two employees,' she wrote. However, she noted that the complainant and Ms B remained friends after the September 2022 incident, while Ms A had stated she had 'just kind of got on with things'. She considered it reasonable that both women would be angry, embarrassed and shocked at the complainant's behaviour, and that it amounted to sexual harassment. However, the conclusion reached by the company investigator that it was a 'high severity of sexual harassment' was 'too extreme' a view, she wrote. She considered it unfair that the employer included the 2022 incident with Ms B's phone in its probe 'to bolster a case for the dismissal of the complainant', having taken no action about it at the time, she wrote. Ms Byrne also found there were 'serious failings' with the process followed by the employer. They 'failed in their duty to properly consider the complainant's defence' – having spent at most 20 minutes considering the worker's position before deciding to dismiss him. Ms Byrne upheld the complaint of unfair dismissal and awarded the worker €22,500 in compensation. She wrote that this was 30 per cent of his estimated losses of €73,500, calculated on the basis that the claimant was out of work six months and was now earning €314 a week less than he had with his former employer.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Irish Times
Founder of gossip website Tattle Life faces up to 40 more libel actions, court hears
The founder of controversial gossip website Tattle Life is being threatened with up to 40 further libel actions, the High Court in Belfast heard on Thursday. Counsel for Sebastian Bond disclosed the scale of potential new claims as a judge refused to relax an order freezing £1.8m (€2.1m) of his assets. Mr Bond has already been sued in a landmark defamation and harassment case taken by Co Antrim-based entrepreneurs Neil and Donna Sands. The couple were awarded £300,000 in damages over abusive comments posted on Tattle Life following a two-year legal battle to uncover the operator of the online forum. READ MORE Neil Sands (43) and wife Donna (34) sued after postings were published in 2021 on the website, which hosts message boards and comments about influencers, celebrities and other members of the public. A judge who dealt with their case said the site had been set up to deliberately inflict hurt and harm by allowing the anonymous trashing of reputations and 'peddling untruths for profit'. In June Mr Bond was named as a founder of Tattle Life after reporting restrictions were lifted. Assets linked to him and two companies based in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong have also been frozen to ensure the damages award and associated costs can be met. Mr Bond is now indicating he may challenge the court's jurisdiction and seek to have the judgment made against him set aside. At a hearing on Thursday, his barrister argued the order should be varied so he could access assets to pay for lawyers to represent him properly. David Mitchell said his client should not have to sell off separate cryptocurrency holdings of £1.6m, incurring capital gains tax of up to 24 per cent in the process. 'That is manifestly unfair and unnecessarily complicated when it would be more straightforward to permit him access to frozen UK bank accounts in order to fund this litigation,' Mr Mitchell said. He said it would be 'a travesty of justice' if the defendant was forced to sell Bitcoin and then ultimately succeeded in having the judgment set aside. 'It is Mr Bond's case that a campaign has been conducted against him where other potential plaintiffs are being encouraged to bring proceedings,' Mr Mitchell said. He revealed that up to 40 letters threatening possible further legal actions have now been sent. 'Mr Bond doesn't have the funds to pay for lawyers to represent him in any of these escalating claims,' Mr Mitchell said. 'It highlights the extreme predicament he finds himself in as a result of the freezing order.' But Peter Girvan, for Mr and Mrs Sands, said they were facing a 'moving target' in trying to establish the defendant's finances. 'My clients' concern is that Mr Bond is trying to ringfence £1.6m in Bitcoin ... and if things don't go well for him he's at least got his crypto assets and can disappear with them,' he said. Ruling on the legal bid, Mr Justice Humphreys cited a previously identified risk that funds could be dissipated. Describing the Bitcoin as accessible 'at the click of a button', the judge identified no evidence for the tax-liability claims amid uncertainty over Mr Bond's residential status. 'The defendant has access to very considerable sums of money represented by cryptocurrency assets which can be liquidated by him for the purpose of paying for his legal representation,' he said.
RTÉ News
3 days ago
- RTÉ News
Crowe report highlights 'stretched and stressed workforce'
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has said the findings of the Crowe Report highlight a "stretched and stressed workforce" and a roads policing review "must be a catalyst for real change". The AGSI's comments follow the publication of the report into roads policing which has found that a number of gardaí are "unproductive" and appear to be demotivated and unconcerned with doing an effective, professional job. The Crowe Report, an independent review of the Roads Policing Unit to assess its effectiveness and integrity, was published this morning. In a statement, the AGSI said it is calling on garda management to deliver on the report's recommendations to strengthen supervision, reform performance policy, and properly resource the force. The association described the report as "a hard-hitting wake-up call for An Garda Síochána", and said it signals a strategic failure at senior management level. AGSI says the report reaffirms what it has been raising for years - that chronic manpower shortages, inadequate training, flawed strategic decisions, and an overemphasis on governance structures have left frontline gardaí undervalued and unsupported. AGSI President Declan Higgins said: "The Crowe report shows that the Garda Roads Policing Units have a solid, effective core which is deserving of support and praise. "However, it also highlights that there is a small minority that are demotivated and clearly demoralised. "This demoralisation within An Garda Síochána has been ignored by garda management and overseeing agencies for far too long. The AGSI also said the report's findings on morale, resourcing, and performance supervision are not isolated to Roads Policing, "but are indicative of larger, organisation-wide issues". The President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has said the Crowe Report states that it "found no evidence of systemic organised culture or work avoidance or deliberately poor performance in roads policing, so that in itself is counter to what we're hearing on the news today". Speaking on RTÉ's News at One Mark O'Meara said today's published report "is different to the initial report" findings that were circulating two weeks ago. Mr O'Meara said the report had been "drip fed" by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. "That's what caused us great concern," he said. He said "commentary that came from the garda commissioner at the time ... caused such damage, and our members find that unforgivable," he said. Mr O'Meara said "six divisions were visited and engaged productively with the core report". "There was 100 to 120 members who were spoken to - the vast majority of those, as the report does quite clearly outline that they were productive, professional and focused on road safety - and that is hugely important. "But it also quite clearly points out to lack of training, lack of resourcing, [an] ageing fleet. These are all issues that we have raised repeatedly with the garda commissioner, this is what caused the vote of no confidence [in the Garda Commissioner] in the first place. "The report speaks of [a] small number of members who, as we have always highlighted are suffering from very, very low morale because of all of the issues that we have raised over the years. "As I said, to bureaucracy, poor morale, terms and conditions of employment, and these are all clearly highlighted in the report as well, and these would go on to affect the morale of those people concerned and those people who will exodus An Garda Síochána when the 30 years are up and they will have no incentive to stay behind. "And that causes morale issues for members in the Road Policing Unit. But this is the first time the garda commissioner has apportioned unjust blame on all ranks below him of incompetence, inability and disinterest." Call for extra resources and updated equipment for roads policing The Irish Road Victims Association has called for extra resources and updated equipment for roads policing. Leo Leighio, spokesperson for the victims group said families who have lost loved ones were "very disappointed that some gardaí were not pulling their weight". Speaking to RTÉ's News At One, Mr Leighio said: "They need to realise that every single life lost on the roads is major. "It's what we have always been saying, roads policing numbers needs to be increased." Mr Leighio said after reading today's Crowe report he believed the majority of gardaí were committed to saving lives on Ireland's roads. However he said a small number "don't think peoples lives are worth doing their jobs for". "It's what we have always been saying, roads policing numbers needs to be increased." He said he is concerned about the effect of today's report on road users. He said road users already think they can get away with anything they want and that "confidence in the garda roads policing unit has to be re-earned". Mr Leighio said families were depending on the new garda commissioner and the superintendents to bring about change. "I have full confidence that the new commissioner will do his job," he said. It has been 20 years since Leo Leighio's 16-year-old daughter Marsia was killed in a hit and run incident. Reflecting on this today he said: "It's a life long sentence, we go though it every day. when we hear things like this it sets us back and upsets us." Crowe report 'very serious' - minister Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary has said the Crowe Report is "very serious". Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, he said: "Minister [for Justice] Jim O'Callaghan has engaged with the garda commissioner on the report. "It's important to emphasise that the report says that this is a minority [of unproductive members], but it's a minority that has to be dealt with. "I think in relation to the disciplinary issues, there are new regulations, Minister Jim O'Callaghan introduced in April of this year under the Policing Security Community Safety Act that will strengthen the whole area of discipline. "But again, it's important to emphasise that the vast majority of gardaí in Roads Policing are committed to their job, the minority have to be dealt with, they have to be engaged [with]. The importance of this work cannot be overstated. "And the difference that work makes to communities, makes to families is absolutely extraordinary. "The new garda commissioner is very aware of the minister's concerns of the report. Officials from the Department of Justice are engaging with garda management around the report to ensure that the findings are implemented. And to ensure that there is a change arising out of it. "But I want to absolutely reassure people, roads policing is taken very seriously and the vast majority of members of An Garda Síochána who are involved in roads policing are professional and exceptionally committed to their jobs," Mr O'Calleary added.
