Man who harassed and blackmailed nearly 30 women is jailed

• Yesterday 19:36

A man who used more than half a dozen aliases to blackmail and ‘catfish’ almost 30 women in a “horrible and cruel” set of offences was sentenced to eight years and three months today.

Ordering Philip O’Shea (32), originally from the Republic of Ireland but with an address at Bushrise in Bushmills, Co Antrim, to serve half his sentence in jail and half under supervised licence conditions, Judge Roseanne McCormick KC paid tribute to the “courage and tenacity” of his victims, some of which watched the proceedings in Antrim Crown Court.

Having briefly outlined how O’Shea harassed 29 women, blackmailing 11 of them and disclosing private sexual images of 13 of his victims to their family, friends, work colleagues and even their children, it was heard in court that his “treatment of the victims caused them great distress”.

Judge McCormick said: “He sought to humiliate and shame these women, but they pushed back, and they reported the offender and I acknowledge the courage of those 29 women for persisting with their complaint to the police.”

O’Shea entered guilty pleas to 13 charges of disclosing private sexual photographs or videos in order to cause distress and 11 counts of blackmail.

He also pleaded guilty to 29 counts of harassment, three charges of making a threat to kill and two of threatening to damage property.

All of the offences were committed on various dates between September 15, 2020, and February 2, 2022.

Giving an overview of each victim’s ordeal during her 90-minute sentencing remarks, Judge McCormick described that in a general sense, O’Shea contacted the various victims through social media, sometimes using his own name but more often than not, using several aliases.

Having started as “friendly conversations”, the online chats, messages and phone calls “rapidly became flirtatious” where O’Shea “persuaded the victims to send images to him and most did so readily”, said the judge.

While one of the victims “never envisaged that their images would be shared by the defendant, he exploited those images by blackmailing for further images under threat of disclosure”.

Judge McCormick outlined that during his multiple campaigns of blackmail and harassment, O’Shea told one victim there would be a “beautiful surprise” of petrol bombs at her home and to “stay away from the windows”.

He also threatened to kill one of his victims’ daughters and her granddaughter’s “unborn baby”.

O’Shea also stalked one of his victims, sending her pictures of her front door and of her putting rubbish in the bin.

Turning to how the victims were affected, Judge McCormick said she had read the “powerful” victim impact statements and while she did not fully open them for the sake of privacy, she revealed that for all of them there had been severe consequences.

Some had lost relationships with friends and family as a result of what O’Shea had done, some were in fear for their lives and the safety of their families, others were “embarrassed to go back to work” and face colleagues and friends who had seen their intimate images.

Judge McCormick told the court that when the various complaints were made to police and O’Shea was arrested, evidence gleaned from his mobile phone pointed towards him as the perpetrator, but she revealed one incident which illustrates the bravery and determination of his victims.

One of the victims was at a petrol station in Enniskillen when she saw a man at the petrol pumps. Recognising him as her blackmailer, she watched as O’Shea got in his car and followed him for a distance, noting his car registration number and reporting it to detectives.

Arrested and interviewed, O’Shea, who moved to Bushmills in March 2020 at a time he was under a DPP report in the Republic of Ireland for similar offending, “made some admissions” in that he accepted ownership of the phone used to contact the victims but he “denied any personal role in the offending”.

The judge revealed that in the pre-sentence probation report, O’Shea claimed he was drunk during most of the exchanges and in the sober light of morning, he would “reflect on his behaviour” but clearly, any reflection “was not sufficient to stop the repeated behaviour”.

She told the court while O’Shea had admitted his guilt and spared the victims from having to testify, there were multiple aggravating factors including the number of victims, the pre-meditation and planning of the “gratuitous” offending.

“This was a way of controlling for his own sexual gratification,” said the judge.

Highlighting how there is only guideline cases for paramilitary style blackmails, Judge McCormick said sextortion type cases were becoming more prevalent where victims can be “humiliated or embarrassed in perpetuity”.

Given that blackmail is an offence which “preys on the soul” of the victim, “this is a case where a deterrent sentence is required”, the judge said.