A man will be sentenced next year after he threatened to publish intimate images of a woman online and then sent her hundreds of degrading and abusive emails, described by a judge as âdebasing not only to this woman but all women in generalâ.
The court heard that Craig Coyle (37) and the woman had been in a relationship for a number of months having met on the dating site Tinder in December 2022. They began their relationship early the following year and broke up in September 2023.
Coyle, of Holly Court, Ballybrack, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to threatening to publish intimate images of the woman without her consent on September 23rd, 2023.
He also pleaded guilty to harassment on dates between September 2023 and December 2023 and two charges of trespass at the womanâs home on December 23rd, 2023 and January 19th, 2024. He has no previous convictions.
The offence falls under legislation known as Cocoâs Law, which criminalises sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent. The penalties include fines and/or up to seven yearsâ imprisonment.
Judge Pauline Codd read a number of the emails Coyle sent the woman, including one which the prosecution said was too graphic to be read into the record.
Sarah Connolly BL, prosecuting, told the court the woman felt especially threatened by this email as it referenced a disclosure she had made to Coyle about the fact that she had previously been the victim of a serious sexual assault. She felt he was purposefully trying to scare her.
Judge Codd noted that the woman had to purchase a security alarm after she caught Coyle outside her home one winterâs evening in 2023.
âHe was prowling around her home in the early hours of the morning,â the judge commented, before she described Coyleâs behaviour as âhorrendousâ.
She said his emails were âdebasing, not just of this woman but women in generalâ, stating that they were âpornographic in natureâ. She said his unwanted communication to the woman âdepicts a dreadful attitudeâ.
Garda Aaron Bradshaw said the woman blocked Coyle on a social media app in September 2023 following a nasty message from him, but he began then to message her on the payment app Revolut claiming that she owed him money.
She accepted she owed him â¬200 and said she would pay him back a few days later when she was next paid. He then messaged her via Revolut and threatened to send intimate images of her to her ex-husband.
The woman blocked Coyle on Revolut as soon as she paid over the money she owed him, but he then began to email her, sending hundreds of abusive and degrading emails over the following months.
The woman read her victim impact statement into the record and said she had gone from someone who didnât set her alarm at night to someone who âhas a house alarm and cameras on 24/7â³.
She said her mental health has deteriorated because of Coyleâs âdepraved, degrading and disgustingâ messages to her. âNo one has ever spoken to me with that level of hatred,â she said.
âIf he had physically hurt me, people would understand the depth of my fear. I wonder if my children would be better off if I was dead,â she concluded.
Judge Codd adjourned the case to February 17th next pending an updated report from a psychologist who has recently diagnosed the man as having emotionally unstable personality disorder.
