A Donegal man who placed a tracking device on a woman’s car has been handed a suspended sentence.
The man, who is in his 30s and cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Ballyshannon District Court.
The man represented himself after it was confirmed that a solicitor had come off record. He told the court that he was pleading guilty to the charge.
He was charged that on dates in 2021, at a location in County Donegal, he harassed a woman. The charge is contrary to section 10 (1) and (6) of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997, as amended by section 10 of the Harassment and Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act, 2020.
Garda Inspector Tony Byrne told the court that the woman found a GPS tracking device containing an SD card taped underneath her vehicle as she was getting ready to take her young children to a creche.
When the SD card was placed into a reader, a video depicting a person was also located.
The man was arrested and admitted to Gardai that he had placed the tracker underneath the woman’s car.
When asked by Judge Cunningham about the Inspector’s evidence, the man replied: “That all sounds right”.
The court was told that the man has no previous convictions and there was no intimate relationship between him and the woman.
When asked why he placed a tracker under the woman’s car, the man told the judge: “I was aware that she was at a property my father owns. I wanted to stop that happening. I would know where she was.”
Judge Cunningham described the incident as being “very sinister”. The judge read a victim impact statement – which was not opened in court – and noted that the whole incident had a “very serious impact on the victim and her children”.
“It had a very enduring and lasting impact and the court must be cognisant of that,” Judge Cunningham added.
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Inspector Byrne said it had come to the attention of Gardai recently that the man was knocking on the woman’s door. He told the court that he was trying to offer a “partial apology”.
Judge Cunningham told him that he was not to go near the woman or her children at all.
“She remains extremely fearful in her own home,” Judge Cunningham said.
The court heard that the man had attempted to make an appeal in relation to the length of time it was taking to hear the case, but he claimed: “I didn’t hear about that”.
The man indicated that he does not wish to engage with the Probation Service.
After telling the court that he did not wish to put forward a plea of mitigation, the man claimed he was being “harassed” by a Garda.
Judge Cunningham convicted the man and sentenced him to a period of five months in prison with the entirety of the sentence suspended for a period of 18 months on condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for that 18-month period.
“You’re kidding me,” the man replied when the sentence was repeated to him.
“I”m not,” Judge Cunningham assured him, warning him that if he received another conviction in the next 18 months the matter would come back before her to consider whether or not to activate the prison sentence.
A previous sitting of the court granted a publication order meaning the identity of the man cannot be reported in order to protect the anonymity of the victim.