Man jailed over threats to publish intimate images of ex partner after relationship ended

A man has been jailed for 18 months after he threatened to publish intimate images of a woman online and then sent her hundreds of degrading and abusive emails.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Craig Coyle (37) and the woman had been in a relationship for a number of months having met on the dating site Tinder in December 2022.

They began their relationship early the following year and broke up in September 2023.

Coyle, aged 37, of Holly Court, Ballybrack, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to threatening to publish intimate images of the woman without her consent on September 23, 2023.

He also pleaded guilty to harassment on dates between September 2023 and December 2023 and to two charges of trespass at the woman’s home on December 23, 2023 and January 19, 2024. He has no previous convictions.

READ ALSO: 'Should be arrested!' - Motorist facing court date for driving at high speed on busy road

The offence falls under legislation known as Coco’s Law, which criminalises sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent. The penalties include fines and/or up to seven years' imprisonment.

Coyle was handed a three-year prison sentence this Monday, with the final 18 months suspended on strict conditions, including that he engage with the Probation Services. He must also disclose any intimate partner relationship and engage with appropriate programmes and services.

Imposing sentence, Judge Pauline Codd said the serious nature of the offending and its impact on the victim were among the aggravating features of the case.

She said she had taken into account the fact of the case, the mitigation, Coyle's personal circumstances, his lack of previous convictions and expressions of remorse and mental health issues.

The judge also noted Coyle's mental health issues and his engagement with services, but she said he “needs to work on his own issues”.

She said: “No one should be visited with what the victim went through. The case had to be marked with a custodial sentence in all the circumstances.” 

The judge also imposed an order that Coyle have no contact with the injured party on a permanent basis.

READ ALSO: Suspended prison sentence for Dublin man who made over 30 bogus 999 calls

At a previous hearing, Judge Pauline Codd read a number of the emails Coyle sent the woman, including one which the prosecution said was too graphic to be read into the record.

After reading this particular email, which Coyle sent to the woman in October 2023 and was entitled 'F*** This', Judge Codd commented: “It is grotesquely pornographic in nature – he is clearly influenced by pornography.”

Sarah Connolly BL, prosecuting, told the court that the woman felt especially threatened by this email as it referenced a disclosure she had made to Coyle about the fact that she had previously been the victim of a serious sexual assault. She felt he was purposefully trying to scare her.

Judge Codd noted that the woman had to purchase a security alarm after she caught Coyle outside her home one winter’s evening in 2023.

“He was prowling around her home in the early hours of the morning,” the judge commented before she described Coyle’s behaviour as “horrendous”.

She said his emails were “debasing not just of this woman but women in general”, again stating that they were “pornographic in nature”. She said his unwanted communication to the woman “depicts a dreadful attitude”.

Garda Aaron Bradshaw said that the woman blocked Coyle on a social media app in September 2023 following a nasty message from him but he then began to message her on the payment app Revolut claiming that she owed him money.

She accepted she owed him €200 and said she would pay him back a few days later when she was next paid. He then messaged her via Revolut and threatened to send intimate images of her to her ex-husband.

The woman blocked Coyle on Revolut as soon as she paid the money she owed him but he then began to email her - amounting to hundreds of abusive and degrading emails over the following months.

He sent a message to her ex-husband on LinkedIn and told him he had material and information that would help him in their mediation.

The court heard that while Coyle apologised for his behaviour in some of these emails and promised never to contact the woman again, he would send more abusive emails again a few days later.

The woman contacted gardaí on December 23, 2022, when Coyle was captured on security cameras peering through her kitchen window just before 6am.

She had only set up security cameras in her house the previous day when she thought she had spotted Coyle at her back door.

Coyle was also captured on security cameras outside the woman’s home on January 19, 2024.

The last email Coyle sent the woman was on Christmas Day 2023 in which he told her she was “most f**** up person in the world”. He called her “a pathetic easy tramp, a narcissistic c***” and said he hoped she would have a great Christmas with her family “because they certainly won’t have with you”.

He said she was a disgrace to all women who have been impacted by rape and sexual assault – referring to the fact that the woman had previously told him she had been the victim of a serious sexual assault. He told her she was “a waste of oxygen”.

The woman read her victim impact statement into the record and said she had gone from someone who didn’t set her alarm at night to someone who “has a house alarm and cameras on 24/7”.

She said her mental health has deteriorated because of Coyle’s “depraved, degrading and disgusting” messages to her. “No one has ever spoken to me with that level of hatred,” she said.

She said her self-esteem went to zero and she began to worry that she'd lose her job. She also started to worry that Coyle would be there when she came home from work.

“I genuinely did not know and still don’t know what this man is capable of,” the woman continued.

“The situation made me distressed every single day,” the woman said, outlining that she was unable to sleep for months and she still has nightmares of seeing Coyle looking through her window.

“I am not the person I was when we first met. I am a shell of my former self,” the woman said.

She said Coyle took away her sense of security and outlined how she has installed security cameras in her home. “I check the app hundreds of times a day,” she continued.

“If he had physically hurt me, people would understand the depth of my fear. I wonder if my children would be better off if I was dead,” she concluded.

Judge Codd thanked the woman for her “courage” in delivering her own victim impact statement. “I know it was not easy and I would like to thank you for that,” the judge said.

Cathal McGreal BL, defending, told the court that his client is consenting to a life-long prohibition of communicating with or contacting the victim in any way.

A probation report, psychological report and letter of apology were provided to the court.