Judge condemns 'manosphere' after female worker harassed with relentless and lewd comments

Tom Tuite

A Westmeath man who harassed a female colleague with "relentless" sexual innuendo in front of co-workers, drove her from her job, a court has heard.

Adjourning sentencing, Judge Keenan Johnson said the case derived from a male culture where speaking disrespectfully of women "is excused by the manosphere and the likes of the Tates".

The victim spoke out in Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court, saying it was relentless, humiliating and degrading. It affected her professionally, psychologically and emotionally.

She detailed how she lost confidence and no longer felt safe in a working environment with males.

Judge Johnson praised her for pressing charges, saying her actions would show others in similar situations a pathway to justice.

The accused, in his 50s and married with children, is not being named to protect the complainant's anonymity.

He had initially tried to explain that the sex slang was "banter" or "slagging".

However, when it came to court, he pleaded guilty to harassing the woman over several months in 2021.

The court heard the woman had upskilled to a new role in the company, after which the accused began making "comments of a sexual nature about her" at their workplace.

Often it took place in their canteen, where he said to her to "get down on your knees and start sucking". She was shocked and embarrassed, and put on earphones to avoid hearing him.

Five minutes later, another colleague came in, and the accused told that man that the victim was "just sucking me off" and he made a gesture as if he was zipping up his trousers.

Another time, he remarked that she must have had a fan club and, referring to another man, said: "Did you give him a blowie too?"

On another occasion, he mentioned to another colleague that she performed a sex act on him and that he left him "with a banana in his pants".

She repeatedly asked him to cut it out, and once when he called her blowjob lips, she said she needed it to stop, but he replied that "I'm only having a laugh".

The woman sent a complaint to their employer, and he remained quiet for about two months until she heard him in the canteen saying to others, "Be careful what you say or you'll get reported".

He took to making insulting comments about her on social media after he learned she had been unsuccessful in a job application.

Later in the workplace, he commented to another man about her that she would leave him with a stiff banana.

Her brother spoke to the accused about his unacceptable comments, but the man was "putting it down to craic".

She then quit and got a new job.

After being arrested, he said the harassment allegation was "bulls**t".

While speaking to the investigating garda, he called the woman a poisonous bitch, an attention seeker who was using him as a scapegoat because she was leaving work.

Later, he posted a video on his social media account saying he wanted to apologise to her. It was played in court, and his defence counsel Shane Geraghty conceded that the apology seemed "hollow".

The man, accompanied to the hearing by his wife, did not address the court. His counsel told the woman that his client had instructed him to apologise profusely on his behalf.

He had eight prior convictions; the most recent was in 2006 for assault causing harm, and the rest were for traffic offences.

Sentencing was set for May.