A straight-A student, who sent a woman a jar thought to have contained a bloody animal organ during a year-long harassment campaign, has been spared a jail sentence.
Stephen Nesbitt (21), Drumfinn Avenue, Ballyfermot, Dublin, was fined €300 after he pleaded guilty to harassing the woman from January 1st until December 20th, 2013.
Judge Michael Walsh also banned Nesbitt, who is doing a five-week course in Trinity College, from contacting the woman and he was warned to stay away from her home.
Dublin District Court heard Nesbitt met the woman at a music class and he “began to think there was more to their friendship than there actually was”. When she did not return his affections, he found out she had a boyfriend and he exacted revenge.
Over a 12-month period the 21-year-old sent her a jar containing bloody animal organs, plastered 80 stickers on lampposts calling her "a slut", sent vile messages on Facebook and threatened to place a pipe bomb in her garden.
Garda Sgt Gail Smith told Judge Walsh that, at some stage, the woman became involved in a relationship with another man and when Nesbitt found out he "became infuriated" and started scaring her by sending her pictures of himself with cuts to his arms.
“He later sent statements in relation to bringing her down to his level,” Sgt Smith said.
The woman “was never more than friends with the defendant” and had to hide her relationship from him.
Threats
Nesbitt began posting comments on the woman’s Facebook page; he stated he had serious feelings for her and a number of threats were made.
Sgt Smith told the court it culminated with the victim finding a glass jar outside her house. It appeared that there had been some kind of animal organ and blood in the jar, she said.
Gardaí have yet to receive a certificate of analysis to say exactly what it was.
Nesbitt sent the woman another message that “he was in love with her and if she did not respond she would only have herself to blame”.
The court heard he threatened to spray-paint her name followed by the words “is a slut”, but the woman indicated that she was not frightened of him. He sent her another message that he would get a baseball bat and leave a pipe bomb in her garden.
Judge Walsh heard Nesbitt placed 80 stickers – naming her and calling her a slut – on lamp-posts in the woman’s area. He also told a counsellor he was going to harm himself.
Sgt Smith agreed with defence solicitor Yvonne Bambury that Nesbitt has not had any contact with the woman for more than a year. Judge Walsh also heard Nesbitt had no prior criminal convictions.
Psychiatric report
The defence solicitor furnished the court with a psychiatric report and said her client is still attending services. She asked the judge to note that Nesbitt pleaded guilty. She said he was under pressure and strain and “was having a lot of difficulties at the time”.
He met the woman at a music class and “he had thought there was more to the relationship than there was”.
She said he got straight As in the Leaving Cert and went to DCU for a year to study physics. He switched to DIT to do science, but due to mental health issues he ended up in hospital.
He is now doing a five-week computer course and hopes to get back into college full-time. The defence pleaded with the judge to consider sparing Nesbitt a criminal record.
However, the judge said that was not possible as a result of the trauma suffered by the victim. Nesbitt, he said, tried to “exact some form of revenge” on the woman and her family. He noted the graphic details given in evidence as well as the psychiatric report and also that Nesbitt was going through some difficulties at the time.
A conviction was recorded and the judge fined Nesbitt €300 that must be paid within four months or he will be jailed for five days in default. He was bound over to keep the peace for 18 months with conditions he must not contact the woman and that he stay away from her family home.
Nesbitt spoke briefly to confirm he wanted the case dealt with at District Court level and not before a judge and jury in the Circuit Court, and that he was pleading guilty.