Sex-call menace raided numbers from his data job
Tuesday March 03 2009
A MAN who stole phone numbers from a data company and used them to make obscene calls to women has been ordered to carry out 240 hours community service.
Fergal Brady (36) of Arthur Griffith Park, Lucan, said he made the sexual comments to the women whose numbers he stole because his wife was seriously ill at the time. He appeared before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
Judge Katherine Delahunt had adjourned sentencing twice to allow Brady tell his wife about the offences. After hearing he had finally told her she imposed a two-year sentence last November which she suspended for three years.
Bills
She had also asked the probation service to evaluate whether Brady was eligible for community service and yesterday ordered that he carry out the community work having noted a favourable report.
She had noted a previous probation report stated he had an addiction to premium rate sex lines and she banned him from ringing such numbers and ordered him to regularly submit his phone bills to the probation service as proof.
Brady pleaded guilty to five counts of using a telephone to send offensive or menacing messages between August 8 and September 6, 2006.
Judge Delahunt said it was "a matter of great concern the ease you were able to get access to this information". She said she was dismayed that sensitive records were not properly sealed and he was able to access them by opening the boxes.
"Anybody would be in fear to know their private details were accessible to someone like yourself," she added.
Brady was also given a suspended sentence in 2004 after he started a fire at a Tesco warehouse, where he worked on the health and safety team, because he believed there was a lack of adequate fire precautions.
Garda Richard Redmond told Caroline Cummings, prosecuting, that Brady worked for DRM Data Management, delivering personal details to and from hospitals when he used the records to phone five women at their homes.
He called them by their names and would ask them questions about their underwear. When one woman asked who he was he said, "a friend, how else would I know your name". She said she was terrified.
Gardai used the phone company to trace the calls back to Brady's home and he was arrested. He made full admissions and entered an early guilty plea.
hnews@herald.ie
- Conor Gallagher and Fiona Ferguson
