A man who subjected his niece to a lengthy campaign of harassment, including posting “sinister, lewd and depraved” messages on social media, as well as threatening to burn her home down has been jailed for 10 years.
William Phelan (57), a farmer from Paddock, Mountrath, Co Laois, pleaded guilty to two charges of persistently pestering his adult niece through phone calls, voice messages and posts on Facebook on dates between February 15th, 2023, and July 5th, 2023, contrary to Section 10 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
The court heard he had engaged in a series of “derogatory and sexual” posts on social media which became “unhinged” over time, as well as expressing a desire for wanting a sexual relationship with his niece.
However, his victim, who lives just 4.5km from her uncle, stressed that he had never raped or done anything of an inappropriate nature to her physically.
Judge Keenan Johnson said Phelan seemed infatuated with his niece but also got a kick out of, in the accused’s own words, “scaring the shit” out of her.
At an earlier hearing in the case at Portlaoise Circuit Criminal Court last month, the woman said she was not seeking her “pound of flesh” in coming to court but only wanting peace for herself and her family.
She said the accused had repeatedly ignored all advice and bail conditions about leaving her alone. On one occasion, she recalled being devastated after he called her on the day he had been released from prison.
The court heard that Phelan had been conducting a campaign of harassment against his victim for 15 years where he had demonstrated “hatred and obsession” through his posts about his niece on Facebook.
The woman described how she feared for her safety all that time because of the way she had been terrorised by her uncle.
She told the court that she had mistakenly believed that if she ignored him, he would eventually leave her alone. Instead, she claimed her silence became “a motivation".
She claims his posts on social media had demonstrated his total disregard for her family. “His sinister, lewd and depraved posts have left scars which will never heal,” she observed.
She added: “He has proven time and time again that he has no intention of ever leaving me alone. He has no regard for laws or the judicial system.”
'Hidden vendetta'
She accused her uncle of conducting “a hidden vendetta” against her and noted he would sometimes leave her 30 voice messages per day. The victim also described her fear when Phelan said he was “like an atom bomb ready to go off".
She said her uncle was also filled with anger and rage at being asked to stay away from the funeral of her brother who had died five years ago.
The woman said she could not describe the heartache it caused her when he would subsequently call her from her brother’s graveside.
She fought back tears as she recounted how one of her children had been subjected to whispers in a school corridor about her uncle’s social media posts which could be seen by everybody.
She told the judge that she felt untold guilt and would never forget what her uncle had put her through.
The court heard she had to install CCTV at her home because of his threats to burn the property down, while gardaí kept a watch on her house while she took a family holiday to Italy.
In one message, Phelan said he knew people whom he had met in prison who would finish her husband and son if she continued to ignore him. The woman said Phelan regarded himself as a victim who had never shown any remorse for his actions.
She claimed she would always carry a sense of guilt that she did not deal with the situation earlier because of the public humiliation he had brought on their lives.
Judge Johnson praised the woman for her “truly powerful” yet understated victim impact statement and expressed enormous sympathy for her.
'No moral compass'
The judge said it was unbelievable that someone could be treated in such a fashion for such a long period of time.
“It was a horrific experience,” he observed. The judge said the accused had “no social conscience or moral compass".
The court heard Phelan, who had 64 previous convictions, is a chronic alcoholic. He told gardaí following his arrest that Facebook was no fun unless you were drunk.
Phelan said he would never attack or rape his niece but expressed a desire that he could be her boyfriend.
Phelan also pleaded guilty to a charge of arson on a storage facility at the rear of Phelan’s takeaway on Main Street, Mountrath, Co Laois on May 23rd, 2022.
On the same date, he also pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage to the windows of a car parked on Main Street, Mountrath which belonged to his nephew, Jason Phelan.
Judge Johnson said the owners of the takeaway, who are unrelated to the accused, had to close the outdoor catering side of their business as a result of over €224,000 damage caused by the fire.
He observed that the members of the family business had suffered “mentally, physically and financially” and it was fortunate that nobody had died or been seriously injured.
The judge noted the damage by Phelan to his nephew’s car, which was estimated at €1,100, was linked to the issue over being prohibited from attending his other nephew’s funeral.
He also observed that Phelan had committed the “truly, shocking” harassment offences while out on bail for the arson and criminal damage charges which meant he would be receiving consecutive sentences.
Judge Johnson said his threats to burn his niece’s home was more worrying given at that stage he had proven himself to be an arsonist.
The court heard a probation report assessed Phelan as being at a high risk of reoffending, if he was consuming alcohol, although the judge observed that he was free of drugs and alcohol since being placed in custody.
Sentencing Phelan to six years in prison for the arson charge and another six years for the harassment charges to run consecutively, the judge suspended the final two years on a number of conditions for a period of five years.
They include that he places himself under the supervision of the Probation Service for a period of 18 months on his release from prison, staying free of alcohol and drugs and having no contact with either his niece or nephew.
