OFFENDER JAILED FOR HARASSMENT AND THREATS AGAINST JOURNALISTS
A convicted rapist who threatened and harassed three female Sunday World journalists has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.Mark McAnaw (53), previously of Letterkenny, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty to the harassment of Nicola Tallant, Amanda Brunker, and Deirdre Reynolds on various dates in August 2023.
The court heard McAnaw repeatedly sent emails and messages containing violent and sexually threatening language, escalating to him threatening to put a "bullet" in one of the women.
He also referred to himself as an "IRA Top Boy." McAnaw turned up at the offices of the Sunday World in Dublin; when refused entry, he went to a nearby cafe, where Gardaí approached him while he waswriting an email to Ms.
Tallant.
He is detained in the Central Mental Hospital and does not accept his diagnosis of schizophrenia, declining medication.
His previous convictions include the rape of a foreign student in Donegal in October 2010, for which he received a nine-year sentence in 2012, as well as convictions for kidnapping in 1989, assaults causing actual bodily harm in 2011, and an aggravated assault in April 2018, resulting in an eight-year and four-month sentence in June 2023, which was backdated to 2018.
He was released in July 2023, a month before the harassment took place.
The court also imposed a strict set of conditions, including lifetime no contact orders, geographic restrictions, and supervised probation, with an overall sentence of 11 years, with the final 12 months suspended on conditions for five years.
The judge commended the victims for their resilience and wished them well.
