bail refused | 

Man appears in court accused of harassing two female Sunday World journalists

He is charged with harassment of three alleged victims – Nicola Tallant and Deirdre Reynolds of the Sunday World and another journalist.

Today at 18:28

A MAN accused of harassing female journalists sent them explicit “sexual fantasy” messages before threatening to shoot them and turning up at their office, it is alleged.

Mark McAnaw (51) initially asked them out on dates by email and social media before the unwanted messages became more sexualised and violent, the women told a court.

He allegedly told one journalist in a message he would “pump her full of bullets” and another that he would “take pleasure in killing her.”

Judge Brendan O’Reilly refused him bail and remanded him in custody for a week for the directions of the DPP.

Mr McAnaw, with an address at St Eunan’s Court, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, is charged with harassment of three alleged victims – Nicola Tallant and Deirdre Reynolds of the Sunday World and another journalist.

Objecting to bail, Detective Sergeant John Brady told Dublin District Court it was alleged Mr McAnaw sent emails to the first two women and the third was contacted by Facebook messages.

Ms Reynolds became “extremely anxious” after she allegedly received six sexually explicit and suggestive mails this month, the court heard.

“They were sexual in nature and expressed his urge to take me out for a drink,” she said in evidence.

“He said he found me attractive and wanted to take me home and take my kit off and wanted to give me a good seeing to,” she told the judge when asked about the sexual content.

The emails became more violent in nature, threatening that he would “come to Dublin and shoot me,” she said.

She was told if she ignored the mails “it would be a life-threatening mistake for me,” she said.

There were also alleged references to “IRA Top Boy” and Sinn Fein in the emails and a threat that “I’m going to pump you full of bullets.”

The court heard the accused did come to the Mediahuis offices at Independent House on Dublin’s Talbot Street on August 23, but neither journalist was there at the time.

He was refused entry by security and went to the Insomnia cafe across the road where “took up position” drinking coffee.

Ms Reynolds said after this, she felt there was a “real and imminent threat” to her.

Cross-examined by defence solicitor Alexander Rafter of Tracy Horan and Co, Ms Reynolds accepted she would get emails from readers that were “not complimentary” but said this was different.

Ms Tallant said she also began receiving emails earlier this month. She initially “didn’t pay a huge amount of heed” to them but they became “increasingly threatening and sexualised”, culminating in a mail saying he was going to come to see her in the offices. She became concerned after learning he did arrive.

“In the emails, it was almost as if he believed a relationship existed or that he was going to conduct a sexual relationship with me,” she said.

He allegedly told her he was planning to go to her home and to get her to bring him to the third alleged victim’s home.

“I was horrified by it,” she said.

She told Mr Rafter she had got unsolicited emails from readers before but in the course of a 30-year career she had never received anything as threatening or sexualised.

Ms Tallant told the judge the sexual content was “very specific.”

“It was a kind of fantasy that had been created in the individual’s head involving a meal out in town and drinks, arriving back at my home and what was going to happen in my home,” she said.

It then involved going to the home of the third alleged victim.

The third journalist alleged the accused had sent a “ridiculous amount” of Facebook messages.

His first contact was “very nice to me, asking me out on dates” but then he “would get more frustrated because the messages were not being replied to, threatening serious violence to me, sexual in nature.”

She alleged the messages stated he was going to stab her and “put a bullet in your nut,” and “I’m going to take pleasure in killing you.”

She was “sick” when she went on Facebook and saw “streams of messages” which referred to “things he wanted to do to me.”

She had been careful not to give away where she lived but after she mentioned a well-known Dublin pub in a post, it was “obvious he had been following me” and hanging around the pub “looking for me.”

She said the contact had “changed my life” and she was “very scared of this man.”

Detective Garda Declan O’Connor read from a “sexual fantasy message” in which the accused allegedly told the third woman he would travel to Dublin, intercept Ms Tallant and convince her to show him where she lived.

The mail stated “I’m going to get your kit off you on your front room floor,” before detailing sexual acts.

Gardai asked the accused if he went to Independent House in an attempt to carry this out and he said “my honest answer is yes.”

Asked if he would have sex with the third journalist “consensually or otherwise,” Mr McAnaw said “yes,” the garda said.

Mr Rafter said none of the alleged victims had met the accused, who they did not know, and they could not authenticate the source of the messages.

He said they were seasoned journalists who would get “a lot of spam emails.”

The accused would undertake to have no contact with the women if bailed and would live 300km away in Donegal, he said.

Judge O’Reilly refused bail and ordered that the accused undergo a psychiatric assessment.