*The jury returned their verdict on Tuesday.
A JURY has found a Kilmihil man guilty of the Facebook harassment of a local garda.
At Ennis Circuit Court on Tuesday, the jury returned a majority 10-2 guilty verdict where Jason Downes (31) of St Michael’s Place Kilmihil, Co Clare was accused of harassing Garda David (Daithi) King by persistently communicating with him on dates between June 6th and June 16th 2020 and thereby causing him alarm and distress contrary to Section 10 of Non Fatal Offences Against The Person Act.
The jury found Mr Downes guilty shortly after Judge Francis Comerford told them that they could return a majority verdict.
The jury had commenced their deliberations on Friday afternoon and recommenced them shortly after 9.30am on Tuesday morning on the fifth day of the case.
Counsel for the State, Sarah Jane Comerford BL told the jury in her closing speech that Jason Downes set up a fake Tommy Teirnan Facebook account “for sinister purposes and the manner in which it was used was sinister”.
Ms Comerford said that the first message was sent from the fake Tommy Teirnan account to Garda King hours after Garda King had seized a car under the Road Traffic Act from Jason Downes’s brother, Nathan on June 8th 2020.
Ms Comerford said the post said, ‘This scum of a Garda trying to make a name for himself by bullying people who are on disability. Please share this Garda based in Kilrush Garda Station. GSOC has a letter of complaint. Hopefully, they will get to the bottom of it’.
Ms Comerford said that the post continued Garda King “is a bully to have in West Clare”.
In evidence, primary school teacher and wife of Garda King, Ciara Bohan told the jury how she was left ‘nervous and scared’ over “nasty” comments made about her husband from the anonymous Facebook account.
Ms Bohan said that she was left “upset and vulnerable” over the anonymous Facebook messenger messages she received about her husband, Garda King in June 2020.
Ms Bohan was seven months pregnant at the time and also had a toddler at home when she received messages from a Facebook profile with the name Tommy Teirnan, spelt wrong.
In one message received on her own Facebook account on June 16th 2020, it said ‘tell your husband he is only a shitty arse coward. I will find out more about him and when I do, he will be very sorry’.
When asked by counsel for the State, Ms Comerford (instructed by Clare State Solicitor, Aisling Casey) how this made her feel, Ms Bohan said “I was upset. My husband went out to do his job as a Guard which I think he did on the day the original messages were posted”.
Ms Bohan said, “He is a good Guard and well respected among his peers. Then to receive the nasty messages and nasty sentiments expressed by someone – it is very hurtful”.
The June 16th message came one week after Ms Bohan received a friend request from the anonymous Tommy Teirnan account and a private message saying ‘your husband is a creep, tell him to stay away from the innocent people in West Clare’.
Ms Bohan said that she was left nervous and scared after receiving the message. She said, “I was upset. It is not a nice thing to receive about your husband”.
In evidence, Garda King said that he was “distressed” by the messages and the posts.
He said that the posts included photos of him while on duty, on his wedding day and at a relative’s wedding.
Garda King told the jury, “I was quite distressed. Pictures of me in my private life. My privacy was being invaded along with the allegations”.
Garda King and his wife, Ciara Bohan were in court for the verdict and after the jury delivered their guilty verdict, Ms Comerford said today that the State has no objection to Mr Downes being remanded on continuing bail for sentencing at a later date.
Judge Comerford remanded Mr Downes on continuing bail to December 13th to fix a date for sentence and Judge Comerford directed that Garda King be asked if he requires to submit a victim impact statement for the sentencing hearing.
