11 years for rapist who harassed 3 journalists

A CONVICTED rapist who threatened and harassed three female Sunday World journalists has been jailed for 11 years.

- BY CLAIRE HENRY and EIMEAR DODD

Mark McAnaw, 53, refused to enter a bond before a sitting of Dublin Circuit Criminal Court which would have suspended the final 12 months of the 11-year sentence imposed for the harassment of Nicola Tallant, Amanda Brunker and Deirdre Reynolds.

After Judge Pauline Codd had outlined the conditions attached to the suspended portion of the sentence yesterday, McAnaw's counsel Rebecca Smith BL said her client did not wish to enter the bond as he found the conditions "onerous". As a result, the judge imposed the full 11-year sentence.

Judge Codd also ordered that McAnaw should have no contact either directly or indirectly with the women, should not approach them, go within 10 miles of their homes and workplaces or communicate with them for life.

McAnaw, previously of Letterkenny, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty to the harassment of the three women on various dates in August 2023.

BULLET

The court heard he repeatedly sent them emails and messages of a violent and sexually threatening nature, which escalated to him threatening to put a "bullet" in one of them.

He also referred to himself as an "IRA Top Boy".

He turned up at the Sunday World offices on Talbot Street and, when refused entry, went to a cafe across the road.

When gardai approached him there, McAnaw was in the process of writing an email to Ms Tallant.

McAnaw is currently detained in the Central Mental Hospital. He does not accept his diagnosis of schizophrenia and has declined to take medication, the court was told.