Next month, a garda will be punished for posing as a female co-worker on the internet and inviting people to her home to rape her and her young daughters.
Shane Flanagan, who left the force in March of this year, acknowledged two charges of encouraging two individuals to rape the friend between November and December of 2020.
In addition, he entered a guilty plea to four charges of possessing photographs of child sexual abuse material and admitting to putting the mother and her teenage daughters in danger through his internet conversations.
During Flanagan’s sentencing hearing today, specifics of the case were disclosed.
The woman, who had thought of him as a friend, was shocked to learn that he was responsible for the messages, the court heard.
She said that it was a “calculated, predatory act of violence” that had left her and her girls with lifelong scars, not merely a loss of friendship.
Prosecuting attorney Anne Marie Lawlor was informed by Detective Sergeant Paul English that the woman and Flanagan had both been An Garda SÃochána members.
He concurred that they had never had a relationship or engaged in any sexual activity.
Flanagan created a profile on a website in Canada that lets users talk to one another about their sexual preferences.
This website’s subgroup, known as “CNC” or consensual non-consent, involves women giving males advance permission to rape them in their homes.
Flanagan created the profile with his female friend’s actual pictures and details.
For the same reason, he created a phoney Facebook profile.
Only in December 2020 were the messages uncovered, when one of the men who had been using the phoney account to discuss the logistics of visiting the woman’s home reached out to her actual Facebook profile to confirm that she was truly giving her assent.
Flanagan’s phone number and information on his laptop were used to connect him to the accounts.
According to Ms. Lawlor, he claimed that this was all “harmless role play” when he was apprehended.
However, she informed the court that he had given men access to her address by providing information such as the woman’s Eircode and the make and model of her vehicle.
During a drawn-out sentencing hearing, details of the discussions between Flanagan, posing as the woman, and men on the Facebook chat and fetish website were read.
The court was informed that two persons had been identified and had given gardaà statements.
Others had not been identified at all, while some men had been identified but had not made comments.
While some resided in the US and the UK, others lived close to the woman’s home town in a small rural village.
The first man thought the woman was giving him permission to visit her house and rape her.
They discussed the specifics of utilising the protection and whether the woman would take the pill after he verified her address information with Flanagan’s profile.
Only after he reached out to the real woman on Facebook to confirm that she was giving her consent did the truth come to light.
To have gone to the extent he did, he told the gardaÃ, the person who had done this “must really hate” the woman.
Pretending to be the woman, Flanagan frequently stated in the messages how his dream was to have someone follow and pursue her, break into her home when she was asleep, or pick her up while she was jogging.
The communications contained “quite extraordinarily detailed descriptions” of the man’s planned actions against the woman.
Flanagan gave the woman’s Eircode to a second man. According to this man, he was “shocked and astounded” at how risky it was for the woman and thought she was giving her entire agreement.
The man was asked to the woman’s home by Flanagan, but he was unable to attend at short notice.
On the fetish website, he sent messages to other men and occasionally included Google Street View photos of the woman’s home along with her Eircode.
Flanagan also discussed being beheaded and having an interest in cannibalism.
He brought up the woman’s young adolescent daughters several times.
Additionally, he set up dates for the rapes to occur with a few of the users.
Additionally, using a running app, he gave other men screenshots of the woman’s typical nighttime jogging route.
He sent people real photos of the woman and her children on Facebook, discussing “cannibal scenarios” and thoughts related to killing and “cooking” the children.
In addition, he talked of giving the teenagers sleeping pills and engaged in a lengthy debate on what would be done to all three.
His laptop included child pornographic pictures of kids between the ages of eight and fifteen, along with an animated picture.
Upon searching the man’s residence and gadgets, the gardaà discovered nearly 700 photos of the woman, along with 219 photos that had been digitally manipulated to depict her gagged, bound, nude, or ready to be cooked.
The woman’s oldest daughter stated in a victim impact statement that she had attended GAA matches with the man and had known him for as long as she could remember.
She claimed that the loss of confidence was startling because he had been a close family friend for a very long time.
She claimed that the incident had impacted her capacity to enjoy life as she once did, her sense of safety, and her faith in other people.
The woman said in her own statement that Flanagan had betrayed her, her kids, and her family by posting the most private information about her and her two daughters’ lives with strangers online and planning to have them attacked and raped.
She claimed that he intended for men to locate them and do horrible acts of violence while posing as a reliable friend and coworker.
She said that she no longer felt secure in her house, that she had debilitating anxiety and panic attacks, and that she needed counselling and medicine to get by.
No punishment could repair the damage, she claimed, adding that she was concerned about how this would affect her children’ lives going forward.
She said that he had stolen her career’s love.
Her dignity and sense of purpose were vanished, but she had once taken pride in her uniform.
She said that it was a deliberate act of predatory assault that had left her and her girls with lifelong wounds, in addition to being a betrayal of friendship.
According to defence attorney Padraig Dwyer, his client apologised to the woman and her kids in a letter.
According to Flanagan, he felt a great deal of sorrow and regret and realised that no amount of words could make up for the misery and suffering he had inflicted.
According to Mr. Dwyer, probation and psychological studies concluded that Flanagan had a low to medium chance of reoffending since his displays of regret and guilt were sincere.
His sister stated that he never came across as anything other than a nice, loyal, compassionate, and humorous man, despite the court having heard about the darker and sinister sides of his personality, according to counsel.
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