Proceedings for a 47-year-old man from Clareinbridge, Galway, Daragh O’Flaherty, accused of delivering threatening or highly inappropriate messages about Hildegarde Naughton, Government Chief Whip, and Senator Sean Kyne, have been put on hold. Mr. O’Flaherty, who resides in the New Estate, is facing four charges under section 4 of the 2020 Harassment, Harmful Communications, and related offences Act, targeting Fine Gael political figures in Galway.
Allegedly, Mr. O’Flaherty disseminated disturbing or seriously offensive content about Ms. Naughton intended to cause harm on January 9th and 10th. Similarly, it’s claimed that he distributed harmful or extremely offensive messages about Mr. Kyne on the same dates.
On Tuesday, his solicitor, John Martin, in Galway District Court, stated that they were attempting to establish whether the State has adequately provided all the requested information so that a trial could be scheduled. Despite Mr. Martin’s belief that the State has disclosed sufficient information, his client disagreed.
Mr. O’Flaherty maintains a purely statistical defence and claims certain “hidden” data by the state has not been provided. The data includes infection rates for people “inoculated with Covid-19 toxin” and hospital information on “excessive death statistics” during the pandemic, as he discussed with Judge Fiona Lydon.
The state’s solicitor for West Galway, Rachel Joyce, noted that in a prior session, Judge Mary Fahy ordered that “all disclosure” should be given to the defendant. Ms Joyce also mentioned that no order had been made for specific disclosure and that, in the State’s view, disclosure requirements had been met.
The hearing was briefly adjourned, resuming with Mr. O’Flaherty’s request to apply for his solicitor to withdraw from the record, which he confirmed.
Judge Lydon informed Mr O’Flaherty that any remaining matters related to disclosure would be addressed at a later date. She suggested that the defendant might consider obtaining legal counsel before the hearing of the case. The case has been postponed until the 8th of July.