Northern Ireland: The court announced an order for the online abuser of BBC journalist Aileen Moynagh

Location: Northern Ireland, Dublin

Date: July 25, 2022

Photo Credit: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press

The Coalition For Women In Journalism welcomes the decision of a Dublin court to penalize the teenage harasser and stalker of BBC News reporter Aileen Moynagh with a two-year probation supervision order. Aileen faced five months of sustained stalking, sexual harassment and threats, in 2020 by the teenager who claimed to be obsessed with her. Although the local police were quick to respond to her complaints, bureaucratic processes delayed the help the journalist immediately needed. The CFWIJ extends support to Aileen for the trauma she faced and lauds the judge's decision to condition the teenage perpetrator's probation period with mental health services.

In October 2020, Aileen started receiving emails purportedly from a woman who claimed to be the mother of a boy with "social problems and a lack of empathy". The sender claimed the boy had been contacting girls online. 

"The “woman” spoke about how maybe her son had gone over the top, “but ‘keep in mind this is a child we’re talking about. I really thought I was talking to a mother about her son," Aileen told The Irish Times earlier this year. 

The emails continued for over three weeks, after which Aileen was tagged in a threatening message on Twitter. The message warned her about a fake Instagram account set up in her name with her picture with a crude and unpleasant description, said Aileen. In her email inbox sat an email from the sender with a picture of her and her partner. The email read: 'Who the f**k is that? I thought we were mates?! I've been looking at you the past 4 months. This is a huge mistake on your part let me tell you that!'"

The picture had been taken from her private Facebook profile, reported Jennifer O'Connell for The Irish Times in May 2022. Over the next few hours there were several emails sent to Aileen and her colleagues, containing personal information about the journalist and warning of retaliation over her having a partner.

Politician Michelle Gildernew was also sent a number of worrying emails about Aileen that same day - November 16, 2020. The emails stated that the sender had met Aileen twice and did not intend any physical harm to the journalist but needed retaliation. The sender also boasted about once getting a woman fired with false allegations and wrote "Aileen Moynagh is f***ed". 

Michelle was extremely concerned and immediately reported the emails to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). 

Terrified and traumatized by the emails and attacks on social media, Aileen alerted the BBC's information security team, who suspected that a perpetrator was based in the South and had "previously contacted others". 

The journalist was told that with his other victims, it had mostly been "very low-level. Mine [Aileen's] was sort of an escalation". She was told, based on past cases, that he gets bored and contact eventually slows down but it might take time. 

The BBC team suggested filing a police complaint, which she did.

Till February 2021, Aileen was subjected to what a judge would later describe as "horrific" sustained online threats and harassment. The perpetrator made as many as 150 different accounts to target Aileen on Twitter and LinkedIn. The Dublin Children's Court would also hear that the harasser, a teenage boy, then 16, had complex issues and an "unhealthy interest" in women journalists. It would emerge that he had previously been cautioned about similar activities against two journalists working with Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ. 

As the teenager lived in the South, the evidence shared with the PSNI had to go through the Interpol, an additional layer of bureaucracy that Aileen felt slowed down the process. 

"There shouldn't be barriers to policing organisations either side of the Border sharing information. Online abuse doesn't have any borders," she told The Irish Times.

In December 2020, Aileen filed an independent complaint with the local police and reportedly found immediate support.

However, six months after his last email to Aileen in February 2021, in which the boy hinted at self harm, and despite the police warning him against contacting the journalist, he traveled to Belfast and was within a few hundred yards from her workplace. 

Aileen was forced to move out of her house and for months guarded her public profile online and offline to protect herself from unwanted attention and unsolicited communication from her harasser. 

On July 24, 2022, a judge in Dublin commuted the six-month deferred detention order given by the Dublin Children's Court last year, when the perpetrator was still a minor, to a two-year probation supervision sentence, reported BBC News. 

The judge noted that based on reports by the Probation Service and psychiatric assessments the boy posed a threat to the community but was of the view that incarceration would not help him. 

The conditions for the probation supervision order state that the teenage harasser must engage with his probation officer and avail mental health services. The boy has been bound by the court to take his medication, continue education and use his free time constructively. Breaking the conditions or repeating the offense could result in the case being reopened with the risk of jail time, warned the judge.

The court further noted that the ordeal Aileen was subjected to was harrowing. 

Aileen was forced to leave her room and is still on constant vigilance, guarding her every move and traumatized by the extreme harassment she faced. In her statements to the media and the court the journalist has expressed sympathies with the boy's family who tried to get him medical help. The journalist has maintained that she wishes the teenage harasser no ill-will but wishes he would "just stop" and get the help he needs.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism extends support to Aileen Moynagh and appreciates the recent court order against the perpetrator. We are horrified and deeply concerned over the trauma she faced for merely being a woman in the public sphere. The perpetrator's unhealthy obsession with Aileen, and other woman journalists, his entitlement in believing that these women owed him anything and the gendered threats he made against Aileen are all reflective of a culture of misogyny. His young age only amplifies the dangers of patriarchy and rape culture, which remain prevalent around the world. We laud the court's decision to penalize the perpetrator as it is apparent that inaction by the authorities in such cases only further exacerbates the threat to survivors of harassment. As evidenced in this case, impunity for sexual harassment also exposes other women to similar threats. We stress that such violations severely hamper women in journalism and act as deterrents to them expanding their role in the media and the public sphere at large. It is high time that we respond to the menace of misogyny at an institutional and structural level.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.

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