A man who posted videos on TikTok in which he made threats to kill or harm Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has been jailed.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Richard McGreevy (29) of Whitechurch Place, Rathfarmham, Co Dublin, posted the videos on July 16th last. He pleaded guilty to two counts of making a threat to kill or cause harm.
The videos were viewed thousands of times, and were also reposted to Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, the court was told.
James Dwyer SC, defending, said his client is not a “political idealogue”, but rather an isolated, “lonely keyboard warrior” who acted “from impulse, not malice”, and failed to realise the impact of his actions.
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The Sinn Féin leader and the Garda Commissioner were not in court during the sentence hearing.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by Antonia Boyle BL, prosecuting, Ms McDonald said like others in the public eye, she had become accustomed to “routine abuse, aggression and causal threats” on social media.
This was different however, the court heard: “The direct threat to shoot me, to shoot me ‘for free’, the open willingness to harm me himself, and the implicit willingness to harm me on behalf of another.”
She said the video presentation was “bizarre, maybe even laughable”, but the threat was “real and chilling”. “I was afraid and angry. My family were enraged and afraid”.
She said the threat caused her distress, anxiety and anger, but she added “I will not allow any bully to stop me from doing my job”.
Commissioner Harris declined to provide a victim impact statement, the court was told, as his view was his statement of complaint captured the impact on him.
The clips on social media were played for Judge Martin Nolan from a laptop.
In them, McGreevy said “Drew Harris, you should be f***ing taken out”, “dragged up to Dolphin’s Barn”, “taken to Dublin Castle” and executed.
McGreevy was arrested and, after caution, he said “this is about those f***ing posts to kill Mary Lou. They were f***ing stupid.”.
He told gardaí he had never had a video that had been viewed so many times, that he didn’t mean for it to go viral and he had taken it down.
He expressed shame and remorse, saying he didn’t mean for anyone to feel hurt or threatened, but had wanted to rant, before acknowledging he shouldn’t have said those things.
Mr Dwyer outlined his client’s background, including that McGreevy had been using cannabis since he was a teenager but was drug-free since going into custody.
He noted McGreevy has an acquired brain injury and suffered physical abuse as a child at the hands of a relative.
Imposing sentence, Judge Nolan said these were “extreme and frightening threats” to two public figures, who were entitled to their peace of mind.
He said the videos would have been “very disturbing” for the injured parties, who would have a “very valid belief that contributions like this poison social discourse and give permission to certain individuals to behave in a certain violent way, particularly to public individuals”.
Judge Nolan imposed a three-and-a-half year prison sentence, with the final 15 months suspended on strict conditions.
