Internet Troll gets three years

alchemist33

Maddux Modern Rule wrote: »

A recluse who had left his house twice in the previous 17 years?

Hardly seems likely, does it?

How were the victims supposed to know this?

Necro

Eric Cartman wrote:

I suspect if it wasnt female journalists who love the victim card and turning on the crocodile tears then ut would have been more reasonable

Jesus. 4 posts in and the mask slipped already. I suspect the rest of this thread is fun too :rolleyes:

Boggles

Maddux Modern Rule wrote: »

A recluse who had left his house twice in the previous 17 years?

Hardly seems likely, does it?

Jesus Christ are you being intentionally silly?

The point was there weren't to know that.

nkl12xtw5goz70

alchemist33 wrote: »

How were the victims supposed to know this?

The judge certainly knew at the time of sentencing that he poses no actual threat to anyone. He's a recluse who never goes outside. So the idea that he has to be locked up for 3 years to protect people from potential physical harm is a bit silly.

Boggles

Maddux Modern Rule wrote: »

The judge certainly knew at the time of sentencing that he poses no actual threat to anyone. He's a recluse who never goes outside. So the idea that he has to be locked up for 3 years to protect people from potential physical harm is a bit silly.

He couldn't stop, he was jailed before his trial because of it.

So it would appear jail is the only way to stop the cretin harassing people.

Outlaw Pete

Boggles wrote: »

Did I just hear a bunch of re-regs swallowing hard?

How did you get their address? :P


Piece of thread trivia: Leighlin Road is where the childhood home of Phil Lynott was.

sbsquarepants

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I'm not getting the outrage OP - Fúck him, he got what he deserved!

There isn't any "outrage" ... if he got what he deserved, then thousands of others who commit far worse crimes don't !!!!

nkl12xtw5goz70

Boggles wrote: »

So it would appear jail is the only way to stop the cretin harassing people.

I suppose we should be happy that we'll be spending around €75,000 a year to keep this dangerous recluse off Twitter.

Overheal

Maddux Modern Rule wrote: »

The judge certainly knew at the time of sentencing that he poses no actual threat to anyone. He's a recluse who never goes outside. So the idea that he has to be locked up for 3 years to protect people from potential physical harm is a bit silly.

Because it’s impossible for a “recluse” with clear mental health problems to go off the handle.... he should just be left to go back home, continue his isolation and be free to continue the same online shenanigans?

Besides this will be rehabilitative for him.

Overheal

Maddux Modern Rule wrote: »

I suppose we should be happy that we'll be spending around €75,000 a year to keep this dangerous recluse off Twitter.

There’s one dangerous recluse I’d love off Twitter for 100 times that amount so that sounds like a bargain

Overheal

Overheal wrote: »

Because it’s impossible for a “recluse” with clear mental health problems to go off the handle.... he should just be left to go back home, continue his isolation and be free to continue the same online shenanigans?

Besides this will be rehabilitative for him.

I hardly think 3 years in the Joy with hardened criminals will be "rehabilitative" but how and ever ...

A few weeks to send a message to him would have been just as effective - that would cool him off.

As others have pointed out, people are getting suspended sentences for repeated violent crimes. The message is that if you physically attack people you are not going to be punished as badly as if you threaten to. Totally insane IMO.

nkl12xtw5goz70

Overheal wrote: »

Because it’s impossible for a “recluse” with clear mental health problems to go off the handle.... he should just be left to go back home, continue his isolation and be free to continue the same online shenanigans?

He has no history of violence, and never goes outside, so the risks are fairly small. Certainly smaller than in case of the numerous actual violent criminals who walk free out of Irish courts on a weekly basis.

and be free to continue the same online shenanigans?

We can't imprison everyone who trolls or abuses others on Twitter. The prisons would be overflowing within days. "Online shenanigans" will continue whether this guy is in prison or not.

Marcos

You're also assuming that there is place in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum which can only take 94 patients at the moment.

hese are the final days of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. It’s scheduled to move into a modern facility, St Ita’s in Portrane, by 2020.

The new facility will be like a hotel compared with Dundrum, Kennedy says. Most significantly, it will be able to handle 170 inpatients instead of the current 94, including 10 beds for adolescents and 20 beds for women.

So that could be another reason why he got prison time instead.

charlietheminxx

I suffered ongoing harassment from an ex a number of years ago. Even though I was fairly certain he was no physical threat to me, I can't tell you the damage it does to your mental health. I remember one day (the worst day of it) I had texts coming from 2 numbers, calls coming in from private numbers, emails coming from a new email account (after I blocked one) and facebook messenger lighting up from fake profiles - all from him, all non-stop. It would stop for a while, maybe a few days, maybe a week or 2 and then start back up. I never knew when it would happen, but it did. I tried everything and ended up going to the gardai myself in the end.

I remember waiting on news about a sick relative and him just blowing up my phone. I remember waiting to hear back from job interviews in 2012 and still feeling uneasy every time I saw a private number. I remember a night away with some friends where I had 38 missed calls in 2 hours.

That went on from 2011 to 2014. I still don't take my phone off silent, ever.

You might say "ah it's a few messages, the poor lad isn't well" but you do not know how badly the spurts of it hit you. You could be having the best day of your life, and then you receive a barrage of contact and it sours it completely.

This guy did that to multiple women, who owed him nothing, and did everything they could to make it stop. It is horrible when you have no more options, when you can't make it stop and get a bit of peace. Nobody deserves to be harassed.

James Brown

I thought it was a little harsh, if only compared to assault cases getting so light sentencing.

Scoundrel

No doubt he posted on here with some of the other "free speech""you cant say anything anymore" morons.

charlietheminxx

Matt Barrett wrote: »

I thought it was a little harsh, if only compared to assault cases getting so light sentencing.

I do see that perspective, but I look at it as 6 months per woman he harassed. He will serve 3 years, less than half the period of harassment he inflicted on others.

Assault cases, particularly sexual assault, need massive sentencing reforms, but that doesn't make this sentence incorrect.

Scoundrel

Eric Cartman wrote: »

6 months, its just words on the internet...

I suspect if it wasnt female journalists who love the victim card and turning on the crocodile tears then ut would have been more reasonable

Oh yeah i'd like to see how well you'd cope with 6 years of abusive Emails you'd be crying to the gards after a week snowflake.

splinter65

Social media has given an opportunity to folk with all kinds of mental health problems to focus their frustration and fear on public figures who they see as deserving of abuse.
Ranting at the TV/radio or writing the odd strongly worded letter to the Editor was as far as it went before.

IAMAMORON

It is all over for the little man. People are such snowflakes these days.

AlanG

I think 3 years is a reasonable sentence if he doesn't have mental health issues. I do however agree with the OP that he probably would have received a lesser sentence if he had actually assaulted the women. It is those cases that have to get focused on.

Wheety

Matt Barrett wrote: »

I thought it was a little harsh, if only compared to assault cases getting so light sentencing.

Yes, the problem is the sentences for these other violent crimes are too soft. Does not mean that this judge got it wrong.

IAMAMORON

Wheety wrote: »

So young people being bullied on the Internet, enough in some cases to attempt to take their own lives, should just be told it's only words?

The answer to your question is yes , they should be told it is only words and that it is only the internet. Kids have been bullied since the dawn of time, it is an unwelcome but very normal part of growing up. As is evident from this case the bullying does not finish when you leave the playground either, it is everywhere.

The sooner kids learn to adapt and deal with their bullies and their fears, the more robust and capable an individual they will become. It is not the internets' or social media's fault that kids get bullied, it is just another medium with which bullies throw their weight around.

Faugheen

charlietheminxx wrote: »

I suffered ongoing harassment from an ex a number of years ago. Even though I was fairly certain he was no physical threat to me, I can't tell you the damage it does to your mental health. I remember one day (the worst day of it) I had texts coming from 2 numbers, calls coming in from private numbers, emails coming from a new email account (after I blocked one) and facebook messenger lighting up from fake profiles - all from him, all non-stop. It would stop for a while, maybe a few days, maybe a week or 2 and then start back up. I never knew when it would happen, but it did. I tried everything and ended up going to the gardai myself in the end.

I remember waiting on news about a sick relative and him just blowing up my phone. I remember waiting to hear back from job interviews in 2012 and still feeling uneasy every time I saw a private number. I remember a night away with some friends where I had 38 missed calls in 2 hours.

That went on from 2011 to 2014. I still don't take my phone off silent, ever.

You might say "ah it's a few messages, the poor lad isn't well" but you do not know how badly the spurts of it hit you. You could be having the best day of your life, and then you receive a barrage of contact and it sours it completely.

This guy did that to multiple women, who owed him nothing, and did everything they could to make it stop. It is horrible when you have no more options, when you can't make it stop and get a bit of peace. Nobody deserves to be harassed.

‘You probably brought it on yourself’ or ‘why didn’t you just answer him?’ will be the next lines from those playing this down.

I’m sorry that happened to you. I can’t imagine what that was like.

charlietheminxx

Faugheen wrote: »

‘You probably brought it on yourself’ or ‘why didn’t you just answer him?’ will be the next lines from those playing this down.

I’m sorry that happened to you. I can’t imagine what that was like.

Probably!

Thanks for being so kind, it was incredibly stressful at the time. It definitely changed some things in my life forever, hate to think of anyone putting up with it. Looking at your phone first thing in the morning and getting the sinking feeling when your see the messages and just thinking "...well it's going to be one of those days then".

riffmongous

IAMAMORON wrote: »

It is all over for the little man. People are such snowflakes these days.

God you can't even stalk and harass strangers anymore, PC gone mad!

wiggle16

I completely disagree with you, Poitin, sorry. I agree with the sentence.

We can call it trolling. Or we can call it what it actually is: stalking and harassment.

One of the women posted about being at home alone. He then said something to the effect of "I'll be over soon". Yes it's just words - but when those words are coming from a stranger who has sent you over 400 abusive messages and is clearly obsessed with you, you'd be excused for feeling a tad freaked out.

The thing is that these women have no way of knowing if this guy is *just* some twisted shut-in (which he was) or if they were in danger from him. "Trolling" is what happens on Boards and in the comments section on youtube - people posting something disagreeable to get a reaction from randomers. Sending abusive PMs to a specific person is not trolling. Sending 450 of them is harassment and stalking.

They have no way of knowing if he is dangerous and many truly dangerous stalkers started off like this. The guy who shot Ronald Reagan was trying to impress Jodie Foster.

Myself I don't think the internet should provide the level of anonymity it does and people should be held accountable for what they do and say online.

Ronaldinho

Not condoning what your man was at for a second but can't help thinking he was in the wrong courtroom at the wrong time. Given increased scrutiny recently on the Judge's seemingly lenient sentencing for sexual assaults and child pornography, can't help thinking he decided to stick it to this fella.

EmmetSpiceland

Eric Cartman wrote: »

6 months, its just words on the internet...

I suspect if it wasnt female journalists who love the victim card and turning on the crocodile tears then ut would have been more reasonable

I suspect that if it happened to male journalists there wouldn’t be as many “users” on here defending the creep.

Ulysses Gaze

charlietheminxx wrote: »

I suffered ongoing harassment from an ex a number of years ago. Even though I was fairly certain he was no physical threat to me, I can't tell you the damage it does to your mental health. I remember one day (the worst day of it) I had texts coming from 2 numbers, calls coming in from private numbers, emails coming from a new email account (after I blocked one) and facebook messenger lighting up from fake profiles - all from him, all non-stop. It would stop for a while, maybe a few days, maybe a week or 2 and then start back up. I never knew when it would happen, but it did. I tried everything and ended up going to the gardai myself in the end.

I remember waiting on news about a sick relative and him just blowing up my phone. I remember waiting to hear back from job interviews in 2012 and still feeling uneasy every time I saw a private number. I remember a night away with some friends where I had 38 missed calls in 2 hours.

That went on from 2011 to 2014. I still don't take my phone off silent, ever.

You might say "ah it's a few messages, the poor lad isn't well" but you do not know how badly the spurts of it hit you. You could be having the best day of your life, and then you receive a barrage of contact and it sours it completely.

This guy did that to multiple women, who owed him nothing, and did everything they could to make it stop. It is horrible when you have no more options, when you can't make it stop and get a bit of peace. Nobody deserves to be harassed.

Well according to some of the hard chaws here, you just needed to "Suck it up, Snowflake"

It sounds horrendous what you went through. Don't think anyone, even the keyboard commandos here, would want to go through it either.