A man has been jailed for 18 months for threatening to publish intimate images of his former girlfriend online, as well as harassing her and trespassing at her home.
Craig Coyle, 37, of Holly Court, Ballybrack in Co Dublin pleaded guilty to the offences in November last year and was sentenced today.
Judge Pauline Codd said he had used multiple mechanisms to harass the woman, involving numerous emails containing psychological and sexist abuse, influenced by pornography.
The court heard Coyle and the woman met on the dating site Tinder in December 2022. They began a relationship but broke up in September 2023.
Garda Aaron Bradshaw told the sentence hearing that the woman blocked Coyle on a social media app after receiving a nasty message from him.
He then began to message her on the Revolut app claiming she owed him money.
She told him she would pay him back €200 she owed him, but he messaged her and threatened to send intimate images of her to her ex-husband.
After she blocked him on Revolut, he began to email her.
The court heard he sent her hundreds of abusive and degrading emails over the following months.
He also messaged her ex-husband offering him material that he claimed would help him in legal proceedings between them.
In some emails he apologised for his behaviour but would then send more abusive mails a few days later.
On 23 December 2023, Coyle was captured on security cameras peering through the woman's kitchen window before 6am.
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He was captured again by the same cameras on 19 January 2024.
He also sent her a highly abusive email on Christmas Day 2023.
He pleaded guilty to threatening to publish intimate images of the woman without her consent on 23 September 2023.
He also admitted harassing her on dates between September and December 2023.
And he pleaded guilty to two counts of trespassing at her home on 23 December 2023 and 19 January 2024.
Judge Codd described Coyle’s behaviour as horrendous and said his emails were debasing not just of this woman but women in general.
The judge said Coyle had greatly affected the woman’s sense of anxiety, and self-esteem and she did not know if she would ever be the same person again.
She said the nature and degree of the harassment and the fact that Coyle had trespassed at her home and had contacted her ex-husband were all aggravating factors.
The judge said in mitigation, Coyle had pleaded guilty and was suffering from underlying psychological issues having experienced a very difficult background, growing up.
He had pleaded guilty and had no previous convictions.
He had also expressed a remorse in a letter read to the court by his barrister, Cathal McGreal, saying he was deeply ashamed about what he had done.
The court heard a probation report had expressed concerns about Coyle’s level of insight into his conduct and the impact of his conduct on his victim.
Judge Codd imposed a three-year sentence, saying the case had to be marked with a custodial sentence, but she suspended the final 18 months on conditions, including a condition that he have no contact with the woman.
