Former Luke Ming Flanagan assistant to go on trial for tweet about Saoirse McHugh

A former assistant to MEP Luke Ming Flanagan is to go on trial in Brussels accused of posting a tweet about photographs of green activist Saoirse McHugh skinny dipping.

Diarmuid Hayes, a Brussels-based film-maker from Ireland who worked as a parliamentary assistant for Mr Flanagan between 2018 and 2019, appeared before judge Isabelle Jacquemin at a criminal court in Belgium’s Palace of Justice on Monday.

Mr Hayes is accused of having illegally accessed Mr Flanagan’s account on Twitter, now known as X, and of having entered false data - broadly-defined crimes in Belgian law that can carry a potential prison sentence or community service.

The judge set a date to hear pleadings on January 3rd. Mr Hayes has not yet entered a plea, and declined to comment.

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Speaking outside the court, Mr Flanagan said he was “relieved” and said the trial would clear his name.

“I’m relieved that the whole thing is going to be resolved and I’m relieved that my name is being totally and utterly cleared, and I’m relieved also for Saoirse McHugh,” he told reporters.

Ms McHugh is named as a victim in the case, along with an assistant of Mr Flanagan who was in Brussels when the tweet was posted, though neither have pressed charges.

The tweet appeared on Mr Flanagan’s account in the early hours of September 28th, 2020, and read “Sapirse mchugh [sic] photo skinny dipping”.

The post led observers on social media to believe that someone operating Mr Flanagan’s account had been searching for photographs of the former candidate for the Green Party, and had accidentally posted their search request.

The post was quickly deleted and at the time Mr Flanagan said he believed his account had been “compromised”.

The Midlands North West MEP later said that he believed the tweet was sent by someone in Belgium while he was in Ireland through a third-party app called Tweetcaster, using an old password for his account.