Crime & Law

Gardaí investigating targeted attack on a car belonging to a Minister

The tyres on Minister for State Mary Butler’s car were slashed and punctured

Minister of State at the Department of Health Mary Butler TD has spoken about being the subject of online abuse in the past. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins
Minister of State at the Department of Health Mary Butler TD has spoken about being the subject of online abuse in the past. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins
Sarah Slater
Fri Mar 08 2024 - 19:14

Gardaí are investigating a targeted attack on a car belonging to Minister for State Mary Butler.

The incident occurred on Friday afternoon in the Barker Street area of Waterford City.

It is understood that the car was parked in the vicinity at around 11am and the vandalism was discovered at 1pm.

One of the car tyres had been slashed and punctured, possibly with a knife or a screwdriver, while no other cars in the area were damaged.

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Garda sources confirmed that the car belongs to Minister Butler. The Minister for Mental Health and Older People parked on Barker Street to walk to an event on O’Connell Street located close by.

The Minister, who has successfully battled cancer, was speaking at a National Women’s Day event against racism.

[ Licensing laws unlikely to be reformed by this summer, says Leo Varadkar ]

The Fianna Fáil deputy has spoken out before about threats politicians and their staff have received over the past year in particular.

Gardaí are investigating the incident and confirmed that they are “checking CCTV footage in the area.

Sources said: “They believe the car was targeted because of who it belonged to.”

The Minister has been the subject of vile abuse in the past.

She had to suspend her Facebook account after a “sinister” fake page was created in her name.

The Minister found herself in the middle of what she has called a “co-ordinated campaign of online hate and harassment”.

At the time, the Waterford deputy said: “I became aware that a fake ‘Mary Butler TD’ Facebook page had been created and used to ‘like’ and ‘laugh’ at certain comments on other, legitimate pages,” she said in a statement this afternoon.

“The intention and effect of this activity was to create the impression that I was dismissive of victims of child sexual abuse.”

The account in question was deleted after she reported it to Facebook, however, screenshots of the accounts activity continue to circulate across social media.