Woman who threatened to bomb the President is sentenced

Anne Fennell (57) sent obscene phone messages to Áras an Uachtaráin

A woman who sent obscene phone messages to Áras an Uachtaráin, including one in which she threatened to bomb the President if he visited England, has received a suspended five-year sentence.

Anne Fennell (57) referred to President Michael D Higgins as a “ladyboy” on one occasion and on another told Áras an Uachtaráin’s receptionist that “the President and Sabina Higgins would go home in plastic bags if they set foot on English soil”.

She made repeated threats to bomb the President over a number of phone calls in April 2014 and again in October of the same year.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court also heard evidence of a campaign of harassment by Fennell against her parish priest.

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The priest received numerous nuisance calls from Fennell and she also ordered taxis and takeaways to his home.

Fennell, of Monastery Gate Green, Clondalkin, Dublin, pleaded guilty to making persistent annoying phone calls and sending obscene or menacing phone messages to Áras an Uachtaráin, the Department of Finance, the European Commission Representation, An Post Dublin Mails Centre and the constituency offices of then TDs Alan Kelly, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Noel Coonan between February 2nd and December 1st, 2014.

She also pleaded guilty to harassing Fr Desmond Byrne at an address in Clondalkin on dates between September and October 2006.

Fennell has no previous convictions.

The court heard the entire area around Dáil Éireann had to be searched on November 18th, 2014, after Fennell called Leinster House and said there would be a bomb at the main gate.

The parliamentary usher who took the call later told gardaí that Fennell, a former An Post worker, had hung up “screaming”.

‘Vulnerable’

Judge Melanie Greally noted that Fennell was someone with a particularly vulnerable psychological make-up and that she had had very exceptional difficulties in her life.

She said that, since the offences, Fennell had brought about a number of positive changes in her living circumstances and had engaged with psychological services that had been made available to her.

She said that Fennell had made some progress but did not seem to appreciate the magnitude of her actions and their impact on the victims.

However, she noted that Fennell was remorseful.

The judge imposed consecutive sentences totalling five years, which she suspended in full, and 18 months’ probation supervision, to include Fennell availing of psychiatric and therapeutic services within the community.