A MAN who left more than 120 “creepy” and “sexually intimidating” voicemail messages on a colleague’s mobile phone has been sentenced to three years.
Paul McLoughlin (50), of North Circular Road, changed his plea to guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after two days of evidence during which the jury heard 62 recordings of those messages.
The former barrister had initially denied harassing barrister Lorcan Staines (30) between May 1st, 2006, and May 14th, 2010.
Judge Patricia Ryan imposed a three-year term but suspended the final year after taking into account McLoughlin’s guilty plea and expressions of remorse. She ordered he undergo 18 months probation supervision on his release and stay away from Mr Staines for 15 years. She noted Mr Staines felt “goaded and taunted” into making a complaint to the Garda and that McLoughlin continued to harass him even after being warned by gardaí and later arrested.
Mr Staines was not in court when sentence was handed down.
McLoughlin has no previous convictions and, although he was a barrister at the time of the offence, he is no longer practising.
During the trial last May the jury heard the messages which Mr Staines had recorded, some of which repeatedly stated: “I want you to be my boyfriend.” Another message said: “You are not available to take my calls, but you are available to play with my emotions.” The phrase “fatal attraction” cropped up many times.
Having listened to the messages in court for over two hours, Mr Staines became visibly upset, saying he felt he had been “goaded” into taking the case to court.
He repeatedly said he found the behaviour “creepy” and “sexually intimidating”.
Sgt Brendan Brogan told Paul Carroll, prosecuting, that in other voicemail messages McLoughlin told Mr Staines he should look left and right the next time he was in the toilet. In another message he said he was in Galway walking where Mr Staines once had walked when he attended college there.
Sgt Brogan said in some of the final voicemails that McLoughlin referred to Sgt Brogan as Mr Staines’s “henchman” and “private army”. These voicemails were received after McLoughlin had been questioned on three occasions and arrested twice.
The court heard McLoughlin was warned by gardaí in September 2009 not to contact Mr Staines again after the barrister had contacted them following three years of harassment. Mr Staines did not make a formal complaint until two months later, after McLoughlin continued to harass him. McLoughlin was arrested but not charged.
He was arrested a second time six months later, in May 2010, and charged after he again resumed calling Mr Staines late at night and leaving aggressive messages.
At this point McLoughlin was released on bail but that bail was revoked in November 2010 when he continued to harass the victim.
He went into custody voluntarily but was later released on bail to attend residential treatment for his alcohol addiction.
He remained on bail until the trial and did not contact Mr Staines again.
McLoughlin, who was placed in an orphanage at six months old, took the stand to apologise to Mr Staines for the “unjustified and unnecessary stress and hurt I have caused him and his family”.