Former general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants & Inspectors (Agsi), Antoinette Cunningham, has revealed in court how “blatantly false, vile social media attacks” left her feeling profound distress and helplessness.
Andrew McGovern (38), of School Lane, Rathowen, Co Westmeath, was remanded on continuing bail pending sentencing by Judge Bernadette Owens at Mullingar District Court on Thursday.
McGovern pleaded guilty to a charge stating that he “did distribute or publish a threatening or grossly offensive communication about Antoinette Cunningham with intent to cause harm”.
The messages were posted on Twitter, now called X.
The offence occurred in the Mullingar area from March 16th to March 30th, 2023, while Ms Cunningham was still Agsi head.
The charge under section 4 of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 carries a possible six-month sentence at District Court level.
McGovern will be sentenced on September 4th.
Det Sgt Alan Farrelly of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation told the court that the first set of five direct messages was sent privately to the victim and made claims that she was the accused’s godmother.
Ms McGovern claimed his father had told him this before he died and that he remembered her when he was a toddler in the 1990s.
Ms Cunningham ignored the messages until she learned of a second set of “more sinister” posts on McGovern’s Twitter account about her. The posts mentioned a person connected to her and were publicly accessible.
They contained unfounded claims that allegations had been “all swept under the carpet” and that McGovern’s life had been ruined.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Cunningham spoke out at her dismay at seeing “blatantly false, vile, and completely shocking allegations” about her on social media. They mentioned her job, which she believed was an effort to “damage and discredit me”.
Describing the posts as “a demonstration of the very toxic side of social media”, she highlighted how the attacks violated her privacy, “and my sense of personal wellbeing and peace of mind was fractured as a result of what happened”.
The court heard she could not fathom why somebody would choose to post disturbing messages about her and continue doing so.
“There was a personal vilification of me going on, and I was powerless, at that point, to do anything about it,” she said. “The messages had a profoundly negative effect on me, they were filled with hate, disinformation, offensive content, lies and basely offensive matters.”
Ms Cunningham was also critical of the social media platform.
“To this day, I find it deeply upsetting that something that is a criminal offence in this country is not accepted as a breach of social media rules here,” she said.
Last year, Ms Cunningham, from Limerick, announced her retirement after 33 years with An Garda Síochána and the Agsi.
