Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan tweet trial: An act of revenge or an impulsive joke?

A submit appeared on MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan’s Twitter account within the early hours of September twenty eighth, 2020, and rapidly went viral.

“Sapirse mchugh picture skinny dipping,” it said.

It was deleted quickly after, however screenshots continued to flow into extensively. The injury was finished.

Flanagan, an Impartial MEP for Midlands North West since 2014, mentioned he was shocked when he woke that morning and checked his Twitter, now X, account. He launched a press release hours later stating his social media account had been “compromised”. He later admitted that few would consider a politician who claimed to have been hacked following a controversial submit.

The tweet seemed that Flanagan had meant to go looking on-line for pictures of Saoirse McHugh, a former Inexperienced Get together election candidate, however had mistakenly posted the meant search phrases on Twitter.

It was solely following an investigation on foot of a legal criticism made to Belgian police that it emerged Flanagan’s former worker was behind the submit.

Diarmuid Hayes (33), a film-maker initially from Dublin, labored as a parliamentary assistant to Flanagan from January 2018 till July 2019. His function centered on communications and video manufacturing.

[ Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan’s former assistant sentenced to community service over ‘skinny dipping’ tweet ]

Hayes grew up in Charlemont, an property off Griffith Avenue. He studied communications at Dublin Metropolis College and was closely concerned with the faculty’s media society. Earlier than working in Brussels, he freelanced in manufacturing and modifying, which included a stint working for RTÉ on an Irish language documentary collection.

When Flanagan retained his seat within the 2019 European elections, Hayes anticipated he could be stored on. Nevertheless, a one-year contract extension was later revoked and the pair fell out.

It’s understood that one level of stress was a criticism made about lodging rented for employees in Co Roscommon through the election marketing campaign. One supply mentioned there was an internal circle and an outer circle inside Flanagan’s employees, with Hayes within the latter.

Giving proof within the Palace of Justice in Brussels in February, Hayes mentioned he felt he had been handled poorly within the last months of his employment. After his contract was not renewed, he mentioned he was unemployed for a interval and commonly smoked hashish.

Flanagan made some extent of fixing the passwords to his social media accounts after Hayes departed. However his former worker later discovered he was nonetheless in a position to entry the MEP’s Twitter account by way of a third-party app, Tweetcaster.

The MEP advised the Belgian court docket Hayes was given entry to his Twitter account by way of the app through the 2018 Nationwide Ploughing Championships. This, he mentioned, was as a result of he would “typically need to cope with about 10,000 folks” on every of the occasion’s three days “who all appear to need to take their {photograph} with me, and I’m exceptionally busy”.

Utilizing Tweetcaster, Hayes was in a position to submit from the politician’s account within the early hours of September twenty eighth, 2020. He advised the court docket he was up late smoking hashish and despatched the submit as an “impulsive” joke. He had “second ideas straight away” and tried to restrict the affect by deleting it.

Hayes secured a job working for the European Fee as a company video producer the next yr. Two days after his daughter was born, he acquired a name informing him {that a} legal investigation opened over the tweet had led to issues along with his safety clearance. This meant he must go away his job, which he did early final yr.

He was later charged with fraudulently intending to wreck Flanagan’s repute. When the case got here to court docket, he apologised and sought mercy from the decide.

Giving proof, Flanagan mentioned he had been ridiculed and his household had acquired abuse because of the submit. He mentioned it was solely when the legal case in opposition to Hayes got here earlier than the courts that the extent of the abuse he was receiving started to subside.

“If he had come out right away, I might instantly have been cleared,” Flanagan mentioned. “This was something however an accident. It was a chilly, calculated, skilfully carried out try and destroy me.”

The case was heard in a small courtroom within the bowels of the Palace of Justice. Flanagan and Hayes sat on benches a number of toes aside, every with an interpreter to assist them observe the proceedings as they have been carried out in French.

Throughout a February listening to, public prosecutor Thomas Descamps sought a one-year sentence for Hayes, who he claimed had been motivated by “revenge”. Charlotte Henderickx, a lawyer representing Hayes, requested the court docket to condemn her shopper to group service.

On Monday, Choose Isabelle Jacquemin chastised Mr Hayes for his actions. She sentenced him to 150 hours group service and fined him €5,000, plus associated court docket prices.

Talking afterwards, Flanagan mentioned he was glad the matter was over.

“My identify has been cleared,” he mentioned.