A man who threatened to send intimate pictures of his ex-partner to her family and friends after she refused to allow him access to her Netflix account has been jailed for two and a half years.
Stephen Coveney Ryan appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court in County Donegal.
He is charged with threatening to distribute or publish an intimate image without the consent of another person with the intent to cause harm or being reckless as to whether harm is caused to the other person which he pleaded guilty to.
On the same date, January 23rd, 2022 at an unknown place, he was also charged with making threats to kill the same woman which was taken into account.
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Details of the incident were given by Detective Garda Patrick Kelly.
The court heard the couple had been in a relationship but had split and that the woman had taken out a barring order against 27-year-old Coveney Ryan in March, 2022.
The accused tried to communicate with the woman by changing his Netflix profile on the woman’s account and leaving a message for her.
The contents of this message cannot be published so as not to identify the victim.
Gardaí advised the woman to cut off all contact with Coveney Ryan and as part of this she changed her log-in details for her Netflix account.
As she did so she checked all her social media messages including Facebook, WhatsApp and others.
On March 7th, she noticed older Facebook messages from a person using the profile John McGuinness.
She said that Coveney Ryan sometimes used this name.
A number of messages were left on the woman’s Facebook messenger making threats to the woman.
The McGuinness account (used by Coveney Ryan) made threats warning that he would distribute intimate pictures to her family and friends if he was not allowed back into the Netflix account.
Coveney Ryan, who was raised in Tipperary, added that the woman had three hours or he would start sharing the intimate picture with her family and friends in three hours from the threat.
In another message, he warned that she was “pushing the wrong buttons today darling” and added “f*** with me and I will kill you today.”
A letter of apology written by the accused was read out in court by the accused man’s barrister, Mr Patrick Gageby, SC.
The court was also told that Coveney Ryan has 12 previous convictions and they include making threats to kill or cause serious harm, thefts, possession of a controlled drug, public order and burglary.
A victim impact statement from the woman was also handed into the court but was not read out.
Mr Gageby said his client had a traumatic upbringing, with his father leaving the family home when he was just three-years-old while his mother suffered mental health issues which led him to being placed in care. He said however, that his client was not without intelligence and insight and that his letter of apology to his former partner gave an indication of that.
He said his client is due for release from jail on March 5th, as he is currently incarcerated, and it is his client’s intention to live and work in Dundalk where he has friends who are respectable.
Judge Aylmer placed the offence in the mid-range of such offences and one which merited a sentence of three years in jail before mitigation.
He added that it also appeared he was taking concrete steps while in prison and because of these factors he would reduce that sentence to one of two and a half years and suspended the final 12 months.