A WOMAN has been given a suspended sentence for posting sex adverts on a classifieds website on behalf of two unwitting people.
Aishling Madden (34) was convicted earlier this month following trial. She had initially admitted posting the messages to the Gumtree website but then claimed she had brought a group of people back from a night out and that they had done it.
Madden of Monastery Drive, Clondalkin, Dublin, pleaded not guilty to four counts of defamation against David Henry and Louise Vivash at her home between June 17th and 20th, 2006. She also denied a further two counts of publishing material which was grossly offensive, indecent or obscene.
The court heard that Madden was “a very fragile person.” Defence counsel Seán Gillane, said she suffered from mental health issues and had to be continuously monitored by her parents with whom she continues to live.
Judge Patrick McCartan sentenced her to 12 months on each count but suspended it in full for three years on condition she complies with the instructions of her medical team.
Sgt Liam Coogan – who was attached to the Computer Crime Investigation Unit – told Seán Guerin, prosecuting, that Madden said in interview that she was working as a temporary receptionist at Accenture in May 2006. She said she came across Ms Vivash’s curriculum vitae (CV) on the work computer and decided to e-mail it to herself as she thought it was a good example of a receptionist’s CV and she wanted to study it to improve her own curriculum vitae.
Sgt Coogan said Ms Vivash’s CV appeared alongside the sexual comments and her contact details on the Gumtree website. He said the CV was also found on a hard drive seized from Madden.
Madden told gardaí she had met Mr Henry once when he was working for the Office Angels recruitment company. Sgt Coogan said an e-mail between Mr Henry and Madden was also found on her hard drive.
She initially told gardaí she did not know who put the comments concerning Ms Vivash and Mr Henry on the website. She said it was not her and could not have been anyone else. She said she wrote some “rude” comments about Ms Vivash on the website but never “activated” the post.
In a second interview she told gardaí three males and one female were in her house on the night the posts were made and had access to her computer. She said they had found Ms Vivash’s CV and posted it online along with the sexual comments but had not activated the post. She said they did this as a practical joke.
She said one of the group was also responsible for the comments about Mr Henry. She told gardaí she had since forgotten their names and only knew them through meeting them a few times in the city centre.
Mark Gibson, who worked with Gumtree at the time, gave evidence of the two messages that were posted on June 18th or 19th, 2006.
He said one was titled “Horny Irish male takes all” and gave Mr Henry’s phone number and work e-mail. It said he was a “keen operator” who offered various sex acts and like to be called “captain caveman”. The other message was titled “Diva with a heart of gold” and gave the phone number and e-mail of Ms Vivash. It offered “blowjobs, handjobs and full sex”. It continued: “Schnell Schnell Schnell, I also speak good German during adult playtime.”
Ms Vivash gave evidence that she had been working as a receptionist for Accenture for several years and kept her CV under a password in her work computer. She said she started receiving calls concerning the advert and her daughter then found it online. She said she got 13 to 20 phone calls and five or six e-mails concerning it. She said she had never heard of Gumtree before and none of the content of the advert was true.
Mr Henry gave evidence that he had interviewed Madden for temporary office jobs but she was not successful.
She said when he told her this she was “not best pleased” and hung up on him. He said he got two e-mails relating to the advert before he contacted the site and they took it down. None of the content was true.
In her defence, Mr Gillane submitted that “there was no sustained period of harassment” and Madden now accepted the verdict of the jury and was sorry for her actions.
“I am very relieved to hear she accepts the verdict of the jury,” Judge McCartan said. “Two innocent people in this case were very meanly targeted and offended for little or no reason.”