A former garda who impersonated a colleague online and incited men to come to her home and rape her has been jailed for seven years.
Shane Flanagan (39), with an address in Co Clare, pretended to be the woman on a fetish website and Facebook and engaged in graphic discussions with other users about sexual and physical violence, rape, cannibalism and torture.
He also shared the woman’s address, photos of her and her daughters, and screenshots from the Strava app which showed 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.
He admitted to one count of possession of four images of child sexual abuse material on January 7th, 2021. He has no previous convictions.
Imposing sentence at the Central Criminal Court on Tuesday, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon said Flanagan’s offending showed a “breathtaking disregard” for the safety of the injured parties and that he would have been “alive to these dangers” due to his background as a garda.
She imposed a sentence of eight years with the final 12 months suspended for three years on strict conditions.
The judge 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.
In evidence, Det Garda Paul English told Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, prosecuting, that the woman and Flanagan were friends but there was no romantic or sexual history.
The court heard the woman became aware that someone was using her image on the Fetlife fetish website after a user of it contacted her via Facebook 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 gardaí.
Det Garda English said the woman was extremely shocked to find out that Flanagan was 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 said.
An investigation connected the Fetlife account to Flanagan. His home was searched on January 17th, 2021 and items including a phone and laptop were seized. Flanagan provided passwords for the devices and an email account.
The investigation found Flanagan had created a false Facebook account in the name of ‘Laura O’Riordan’ using the injured party’s information.
Det Garda English told the court 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 gardaí. 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 consensual non consent, which involves one party agreeing for another party to carry out a rape at a set location.
One of these men, living in the UK, told gardaí that this person must “really hate” the victim to go to these lengths.
Details of Flanagan’s interactions with 12 other users of Fetlife.com, who could not be identified by gardaí, were described to the court. These conversations included graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, rape and cannibalism.
Under the alias of ‘Laura O’Riordan’, Flanagan engaged in similar conversations using Facebook Messenger and shared photos of the woman and her daughters, her address and other personal information.
Reading her victim impact statement at an earlier sentence hearing, the woman, who wished to retain her anonymity, but does not object to Flanagan being identified, said he was someone she had trusted and called a friend.
He was a fellow garda who was supposed to uphold the same professional values she did. She said he not only betrayed her, but took her career. She said Flanagan planned for men to find her and her daughters and “carry out unspeakable acts of violence”.
She said no sentence could undo the harm caused by a “calculated predatory act of violence that has left lifelong scars” for her and her daughters.
Det Garda English agreed with Padraig Dwyer SC, defending, that Flanagan retired from the Garda in March and had an “unblemished” record of service.
Mr Dwyer read a letter of apology from his client to the court in which Flanagan said he felt “deep guilt, shame” and understands he stole the victims’ peace of mind.
Ms Justice Creedon said the offending was “not a short lapse of judgment” as it occurred over a period of several years. It was “cold”, “calculated” and “motivated by satisfying his own sexual interests and gratification”.
Breffni Gordon BL, defending, told the court that Flanagan 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.