A young woman who “suffered greatly” from the harassment and intimidation of a man who continually stalked her and shouted a number of obsensities and other offensive remarks over the course of 17 months had to be put on medication and could not sleep at night, the Galway District Court was told.
At Monday’s court sitting, Gerard Cunningham (33 ), a Mayo native with an address given as 1 Gort Na Bro, Rahoon, had initially pleaded guilty to harassing the then 18-year-old woman on dates unknown between April 1, 2009, and September 5, 2010, contrary to Section 10(1 ) and (6 ) of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. However as the case was being heard Cunningham suggested that he was not entirely to blame, which led to Judge Mary Fahy refusing to conclude the case and adjourning it to next week.
Reading from a statement given by the injured party on May 29, 2010, Inspector Mick Coppinger told the court that the woman encountered Cunningham for the first time when she had been sitting with a friend on a bench in Eyre Square. Cunningham approached and asked her to go down an alley and give him a blow job. He then continually harassed her to have sex with him. The injured party left the area but Cunningham followed her as she walked to her college. When she had completed some photocopying she walked towards town and again encountered Cunningham. He was walking behind and laughing menacingly at her.
The court heard that a month later she had been in the Newcastle area and saw Cunningham sitting on a wall outside Arch Motors. The woman tried to ignore Cunningham as he continued to follow her through the hospital grounds. Three weeks later the defendant followed the woman again. She rang a friend, and ran into a local store to await the friend’s arrival. When they left together they saw Cunningham laughing at them before saying “I’m watching you”.
The harassment and the stalking continued on a regular basis. On one occasion at Corbett Court Shopping Centre the woman put her head down when she saw Cunningham. However, he approached, put his face into hers, and shouted “rape, rape” before walking off. The court heard that Cunningham was also observed by the injured party at University Road shouting at girls calling them “whores” and making other offensive remarks.
Inspector Coppinger further explained that as a result of the harassment carried out by the defendant the injured party had to take medication prescribed by a doctor, and she was unable to sleep. He added that the woman had no knowledge of the defendant before these incidents and that when she was in town with her father she took a photo and that this was used by the Gardai to identify him. He added that the lastest incident took place in September 2010 when the young woman had been in a Dunnes Stores with her mother. Despite all the checkouts being free Cunningham stood behind the two women. Inspector Cunningham added that this was clearly “intimidation”.
“This lady has suffered greatly from all the intimidation. At no stage did she know this guy, he seems to have picked her out for particular attention, which is very, very, worrying,” said Inspector Coppinger.
Defence solicitor Ronan Murphy told the court that leading up to this there had been a certain amount of “laughing and joking” between his client and the woman. Mr Murphy added that although Cunningham accepts the content of the statements “his interpretation at times wasn’t the same as hers”. “He is upset that he caused her distress, and he doesn’t want to cause her more distress. He didn’t realise how much offence was caused... He has had serious difficulties with alcohol, and there are suggestions that he suffers from paranoia,” said Mr Murphy, who added that his client claimed to have felt that he was being laughed at.
Referring to the offensive remarks made by Cunningham, Judge Fahy replied: “I don’t think this girl would feel this is a laughing matter. She is on medication and cannot sleep.”
“He didn’t realise the offence he was causing,” said Mr Murphy, before Cunningham addressed Judge Fahy claiming that he had felt bullied, that he had no knowledge of asking for sex.
Noting that there is no point in the defendant pleading guilty and then not accepting the facts outlined, Judge Fahy remanded Cunningham into custody to appear in court again on December 12 for reports and for witnesses to appear. She also made an order for Cunningham to be seen by a doctor and to be given medication if required.
