A FINE GAEL TD has said that a man’s decision to send her sexually explicit videos meant she was filled with a “cold sense of dread” and concerns for her safety during the 2020 election campaign.
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill spoke in Dublin Circuit Court today at the trial of a man who sent her three sexually explicit videos and messages in the early months of 2020.
43-year-old Gerard Culhane of Marian Place, Glin, Co Limerick, pleaded guilty to harassing the Fine Gael TD on dates between January 13, 2020 and March 26, 2020.
The court heard that during that time, Culhane sent the TD 13 messages, including three sexually explicit videos, which he later admitted to Gardaí he had downloaded from a pornographic website.
Carroll MacNeill told the court in her victim impact statement that she had been in the middle of the 2020 election campaign at the time and that the messages from Culhane were “extremely difficult to deal with”, and that she didn’t want to be in court.
“But because some man thought it was okay to invade my life and my mind and my sense of security because of whatever twisted purpose he got out of it, I have to use my time to pursue it,” she said.
“I do not choose to be sexualised in this way, to be in media articles with sexual content. But because some man decided to send me sexually explicit videos, it is there for ever more for everyone to see. All of this is without my consent.”
Carroll MacNeill added that during the general election her main objective was to go out and meet as many members of the general public as possible, and felt unsafe due to the messages she was receiving.
Detective Sergeant Rachael Kilpatrick told Pieter Le Vert BL, prosecuting that the messages to Carroll MacNeill came from a Facebook account in the name of a “Kevin Walsh”.
The then-candidate for the Dún Laoghaire Dáil constituency was sent multiple videos of a male masturbating as well as nude images.
She was also sent a photograph of herself taken at the 40 foot bathing pool in Dun Laoghaire along with another politician, previously published and attached to it was a message: “You look so sexy. What a great body you have”.
Carroll MacNeill’s statement continued: “I don’t like to admit it but it rocked my personal life and my sense of security.
It also made me very aware of how my family and close team treated me differently, whether it was intentional or not, everyone was just suddenly on a higher alert, more concerned and more protective of me, my physical being and my emotional wellbeing.”
She added: “ I felt there was a real, actual risk to me. I felt it, and I couldn’t see
it. I didn’t know where it was, I didn’t know what the nature of it was.
Ok this was just a video, but what next? Was it just a video? Was it a precursor to something else? Was this person far away, or were they just over there? Were they crossing the road towards me?”
A Garda investigation was launched to try and establish the identity of Kevin Walsh and Culhane was ultimately nominated as a suspect.
A warrant was executed to search his home in Limerick in July 2020.
Det Sgt Kilpatrick said Culhane immediately admitted that he knew why the Gardaí were there. He handed over his phone and provided Gardaí with his password for Facebook.
The defendant had €1,000 in court to offer as a token of his remorse, which Carroll MacNeill has indicated that she would like to be donated to Aoibhneas Womens Refuge in Coolock, Dublin.
Culhane was remanded on continuing bail until October.
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