A former Fianna Fáil councillor, who admitted being “a kind of stalker” while harassing a young waitress at a restaurant where she worked in Cork city, has been given a nine-month suspended sentence.
Joseph O’Donovan (50), formerly Gary O’Flynn, who served on Cork City Council from 2003 to 2008, previously pleaded guilty to harassing the 25-year-old woman in Cork on three separate occasions in July and August 2022.
At Cork District Court on Thursday, Judge Mary Dorgan said she was putting numerous conditions on the suspension of the sentence, including that he is to have no contact with the young woman who was harassed.
The judge said a probation report on O’Donovan said he was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum and needing “all the help that he can get”.
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O’Donovan flagged down the young waitress and kissed her on the hand, telling her he was ‘the nicest and prettiest girl he had ever seen’
Judge Dorgan previously noted the probation report assessed O’Donovan as at a low risk of reoffending. However, she said the woman’s victim impact statement made for “compelling reading”, and he had told his victim that he was “kind of a stalker”.
The judge observed alcohol exacerbated his behaviour to an unacceptable level that led to the young woman becoming deeply traumatised.
The court previously heard O’Donovan went to a restaurant in Cork city centre on July 30th, 2022, where, drinking wine, he flagged down the young waitress and kissed her on the hand, telling her he was “the nicest and prettiest girl he had ever seen”.
He visited the restaurant again two days later and asked to be served by the same woman. He again took her hand, kissed it and breathed into her ear. He said: “Meet me outside for a tip and I better get your phone number for it.”
O’Donovan went outside and then stared in, causing the waitress to tell him he wasn’t welcome, and he should leave. O’Donovan followed her back inside and asked to see her again. When he was asked to leave by management, he threw €50 at the waitress.
O’Donovan returned to the restaurant on August 6th, 2022, around 10.30pm when the premises was about to close. The waitress again told him to leave, and O’Donovan said he was sorry but he could not help it, the court heard.
O’Donovan, with an address of Melvindale House, Coolowen, Blarney, Co Cork, was later arrested. He told gardaí the woman was very pretty and that he kissed her hand in a manner seen in movies as a gesture of politeness and courtesy.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said she had to wait three years to have her day in court and, during that time, she “never stopped” looking over her shoulder when she heard steps behind her.
“This man looked me in the eye and called himself a creep. This man looked me in the eyes and called himself a stalker. Then laughed about it — laughter with a laugh that still makes me recoil in fear to this day,” she said.
“That moment has never left me. Because in that moment I realised I wasn’t dealing with someone who didn’t understand boundaries, but someone who chose to violate them,” she said, adding that O’Donovan felt his desire outweighed her right to say “No”.
