Suspended sentence for Cork man who sent 33 emails about young woman to her employer

A Cork man who sent 33 emails about a young woman to her employer has been given a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to have no contact with her for five years.

The court also ordered James O'Sullivan, aged 34, of 27 Leeview, Ballincollig, not to go within 100m of the woman during that period.

The woman first contacted gardaí after her employer alerted her to a series of emails from O'Sullivan, who made no attempt to conceal his identity. 

Detective Sergeant Liam Walsh said a garda initially warned O'Sullivan to stop sending the messages.

At that stage, the woman did not wish to make a formal complaint and simply wanted the contact to stop. However, after further emails were sent over the following weeks, she made an official complaint.

The court heard O'Sullivan described the woman as a horrible person in the emails.

O’Sullivan was prosecuted for harassment and immediately pleaded guilty. 

Alison McCarthy, defence barrister, said her client had been addicted to alcohol for a long time, which was a factor in his behavious. She said he also became jealous of the woman's friendships and the age difference between them.

Judge Helen Boyle said that an aggravating factor was that the defendant had continued with the harassment even after being warned by a member of An Garda Síochána. 

Yhe judge noted several mitigating factors, notably the signed plea of guilty, the absence of any previous convictions, the fact that he had rehabilitated and was off alcohol since June 2025, and the fact that he is doing well in employment and has not sent any email or had any contact since March 2025 when the harassment stopped.

Ms McCarthy said the reason the case had come to the circuit rather than district court was because the district judge had refused jurisdiction.

Det. Sgt Walsh said the defendant and the injured party had been platonic friends and she had tried to assist him in dealing with his alcohol addiction. 

However, she ended up blocking his calls. He sent her a total of 33 emails after this, in two short periods between November 2023 and March 2025 and also attended at a work event which he knew she was attending, and once went to her home and spoke to her father.

The defence barrister said that the probation report was favourable and put him at low risk of ever reoffending. 

She said he expressed real remorse and was mortified and ashamed at what he had done.