Serial Limerick offender loses sentence appeal for harassing woman

A MAN who continued to harass a woman and her father despite repeated warnings from gardai and criminal charges being brought against him has failed in a bid to reduce his four-year prison sentence.

Eoin Hannan, aged 50, of Abbeyvale, Corbally, Limerick, was convicted in April 2022 of the harassment of a woman at various locations in the State on dates between February 14 and August 25, 2020.

Three months later, Hannan pleaded guilty to a separate charge of harassing the woman's father on dates between January 20 and February 13, 2021.

The court heard that Hannan repeatedly contacted the victim despite the fact that, in 2017, gardaí had warned him that the woman did not welcome his behaviour.

He was warned again in February 2019 but, on Valentine's Day 2020, he sent a Valentine's card to the woman addressed to her family home where her father lives. The woman was upset because she was worried Hannan would visit the house.

Detective Garda Sarah Barry told the court that, over the next eight months, Hannan sent wine and chocolates to the victim’s workplace in the capital. He sent her a watch in June 2020, and later sent her a bracelet.

In August, he sent a letter to the family home with a teddy bear and a lollipop. The letter referred to the victim's father and included the phrase “one could kill anything except time”, which caused her concern. It later emerged that Hannan had mistaken his victim for another woman and he characterised his offending as "romantic rather than sinister" and "based on a case of mistaken identity".

Hannan, who has 44 previous convictions including for assault, criminal damage, making threats to kill, possession of knives, and robbery, had denied the charge and the conviction followed a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. 

Delivering the judgment of the three-judge Court of Appeal today, Mr Justice Seamus Woulfe said Hannan had appealed on the grounds that his offending was non-violent and that the sentencing judge had failed to have proper regard to the defendant's diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder.

Mr Justice Woulfe said that while the offending was not violent, it concerned a "serious and persistent pattern of harassment and had a significant impact on its victims." The judge noted that Hannan had compared his sentence to those given to sexual offenders, but he said the court takes the view that sentences handed down in one case cannot be decisive in a later case. He found no error in the sentencing judge's approach.

Mr Justice Woulfe said the trial judge had shown that she was cognisant of Hannan's mental health difficulties and took his diagnosis into account when considering mitigating factors. Again, the court found no error in principle and dismissed all grounds of appeal.

Appeal

Hannan, who represented himself in the appeal court, argued at a hearing in June this year that the sentence had been unduly severe and that no account was taken of the fact that he has bipolar affective disorder.

He said he wrote to the victim in February 2019, saying he would not be writing again and, after receiving a Garda warning, he then left the country.

“I contend that after that, it was a civil matter and the gardaí had no right to get involved,” he said.

Hannan went on to reference recent sexual assault cases in which the sentence imposed was similar or less than his own.

"I’m saying like for like, they got lesser sentences than I did," he claimed.

He added that he found it hard to reconcile the sentences in these cases with the jail term he received for “mistakenly sending a series of romantic style letters to the wrong girl”.

“I would like to live in a society where such a mistake would be acknowledged without the involvement of the gardaí,” he added.

Psychotic episode

Hannan told the court he suffered a psychotic episode after he stopped taking his medication and was treated at the Central Mental Hospital for six months.

He said he was stabilised on medication and was transferred back to Mountjoy last March.

He said he is now resigned to being on medication for the rest of his life, and said this has made a big difference to his overall wellbeing.

“I’m deeply ashamed of the crime I have been convicted of and have been punished severely,” he told the court.

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Hannan said his conviction was for a non-violent offence, which was “romantic rather than sinister” and “based on a case of mistaken identity”.

“Again I’d say I don’t believe the gardaí should have been involved in the early stages because it was not a criminal matter to send a letter to a girl,” he said.

“For the reasons outlined, I would beg you to commute or suspend the rest of my sentence.”

Eoin Lawlor BL, for the State, suggested to the court that the jail terms imposed were balanced sentences that gave “a great deal of consideration” to the effect the offences had on the victim and to Hannan’s circumstances.

He said the maximum sentence in this case was one of seven years. The offending was persistent and, while it wasn’t violent, there were “elements that were sinister”, he said, and that was something which was of great concern.