{"id":409515,"date":"2026-04-21T05:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409515\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T05:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:49:12","slug":"westmeath-man-harassed-female-colleague-with-relentless-sexual-innuendo-court-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409515\/","title":{"rendered":"Westmeath man harassed female colleague with \u2018relentless\u2019 sexual innuendo, court hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Co Westmeath<\/a> man who harassed a female colleague with \u201crelentless\u201d sexual innuendo in front of co-workers, drove her from her job, a court has heard. <\/p>\n

Adjourning sentencing, Judge Keenan Johnson said the case derived from a male culture where speaking disrespectfully of women \u201cis excused by the manosphere and the likes of the Tates\u201d.<\/p>\n

The victim spoke out in Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court, saying it was relentless, humiliating and degrading. It affected her professionally, psychologically and emotionally.<\/p>\n

She detailed how she lost confidence and no longer felt safe in a working environment with males.<\/p>\n

The judge praised her for pursuing charges, saying her actions would show others in similar situations a pathway to justice.<\/p>\n

The accused, a man in his 50s who is married with children, is not being named to protect the complainant\u2019s anonymity.<\/p>\n

He had initially tried to explain that the sex slang was \u201cbanter\u201d or \u201cslagging\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, when it came to court, he pleaded guilty to harassing the woman over several months in 2021.<\/p>\n

The court heard she had upskilled to a new role in the company, after which the accused began making \u201ccomments of a sexual nature about her\u201d at their workplace. <\/p>\n

Often it took place in their canteen, where he said to her to \u201cget down on your knees\u201d. She was shocked and embarrassed, and put on earphones to avoid hearing him.<\/p>\n

On another occasion, he mentioned to another colleague that she performed a sex act on him and that she left him \u201cwith a banana in his pants\u201d.<\/p>\n

She repeatedly asked him to stop and once he replied that \u201cI\u2019m only having a laugh\u201d.<\/p>\n

The woman sent a complaint to their employer, and he remained quiet for about two months until she heard him in the canteen saying to others: \u201cBe careful what you say or you\u2019ll get reported.\u201d<\/p>\n

He took to making insulting comments about her on social media after he learned she had been unsuccessful in a job application.<\/p>\n

Later in the workplace, he commented to another man about her that she would leave him with a stiff banana.<\/p>\n

Her brother spoke to the accused about his unacceptable comments, but the man was \u201cputting it down to craic\u201d.<\/p>\n

She then quit and got a new job.<\/p>\n

After being arrested, he said the harassment allegation was \u201cbullshit\u201d.<\/p>\n

While speaking to the investigating garda, he called the woman a poisonous bitch and an attention seeker who was using him as a scapegoat because she was leaving work.<\/p>\n

Later, he posted a video on his social media account saying he wanted to apologise to her. It was played in court, and his defence counsel Shane Geraghty conceded that the apology seemed \u201chollow\u201d.<\/p>\n

The man, accompanied to the hearing by his wife, did not address the court. His barrister told the woman that his client had instructed him to apologise profusely on his behalf.<\/p>\n

He had eight prior convictions; the most recent in 2006 for assault causing harm, and the rest for traffic offences.<\/p>\n

Sentencing was set for May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Co Westmeath man who harassed a female colleague with \u201crelentless\u201d sexual innuendo in front of co-workers, drove…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,61,60,57,43,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-409515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-mullingar","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-westmeath"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}