A previous parliamentary aide to MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Diarmuid Hayes, has been ordered to serve 150 hours of community service for a Twitter post disseminated from the politician’s account regarding a former Green Party candidate, Saoirse McHugh, skinny-dipping. Mr Hayes, a film-maker who was employed by Mr Flanagan for a year and a half, had priorly expressed remorse about the reckless prank tweet.
The tweet made a false impression that Mr Flanagan was searching for unclothed pictures of Saoirse McHugh and had mistakenly put the intended search words on Twitter. The tweet was made during the dawn hours of September 28th, 2020 on Mr Flanagan’s now deactivated Twitter account, and resulted in a criminal investigation against Mr Hayes for the alleged intentional harm to Mr Flanagan’s reputation.
At the time the tweet was made, Mr Hayes was no longer an employee at the MEP’s European Parliament office but maintained access to his Twitter account via a third-party app. During a court session held on Monday in the Palace of Justice in Brussels, Mr Hayes received a community service sentence of 150 hours.
Judge Isabelle Jacquemin advised Mr Hayes to realise the implications of his actions, especially concerning the harmful usage of social media. The judge issued a warning that failure to fulfil the community service order would result in a 15-month prison sentence. Mr Hayes, originally from North Dublin, was also fined €5,000 and additional court costs.
Mr Hayes, who served as Mr Flanagan’s assistant from January 2018 to July 2019, admitted to feeling bitter when his contract was not extended. During a February trial, Mr Hayes stated that the controversial tweet was a spur-of-the-moment joke made late at night under the influence of cannabis. He described his connection with Mr Flanagan as “very complicated”, mentioning that an initial proposal for a one-year contract extension was later withdrawn. He still had access to the account through the app, Tweetcaster, even after Mr Flanagan changed his passwords.
During the hearing, Mr. Flanagan confessed that the incident had been distressing for both himself and his family, resulting in mockery and maltreatment. The political representative from Co Roscommon criticised Mr. Hayes for failing to openly acknowledge that he was responsible for the post in the subsequent days.
The Belgian public prosecutor, Thomas Descamps, proposed a one-year jail term for Mr. Hayes, stating he would not contest the sentence if it were suspended. Mr. Descamps further stated in his argument that the post was fuelled by Mr. Hayes’ desire for “retribution” and was designed to cause harm to Mr. Flanagan.
Charlotte Henderickx, the legal counsel for Mr. Hayes, appealed to the judge to give her client a community service sentence.