Man who subjected his niece to 'sinister, lewd, and depraved' messages jailed for 10 years

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, she said the accused had repeatedly ignored all advice and bail conditions about leaving her alone.

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 post about his niece on Facebook.

The woman said she feared for her safety all that time because of the way she had been terrorised by her uncle. She told the court she had mistakenly believed that if she ignored him, he would eventually leave her alone. Instead, she said her silence became “a motivation”. She told the court: 

His sinister, lewd and depraved posts have left scars which will never heal. 

She accused her uncle of conducting “a hidden vendetta” against her and noted he would sometimes leave her 30 voice messages per day.

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.

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.

Phelan also pleaded guilty to a charge of arson on a storage facility at the rear of Phelan’s takeaway on Main St, Mountrath, Co Laois, on May 23, 2022.

Judge Johnson praised the woman for her “truly powerful” yet understated victim impact statement and expressed enormous sympathy for experiencing something that nobody should have to.

He 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 that, at that stage, he had proven himself to be an arsonist.

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.