A Dublin man has been spared jail after pleading guilty to stalking a female social media influencer in a Dublin Hotel last March.
Denis Morris (23) of Braemor Road, Churchtown, Dublin, appeared before Judge Treasa Kelly last November after he was charged in relation to the incident where he followed the young woman from outside Copper Faced Jack’s onto the 5th floor of the Iveagh Garden Hotel, where she was staying.
Today, Judge Kelly sentenced Morris to six months in prison, which was fully suspended for 12 months, on condition that he continue attending alcohol addiction counselling.
He must also make himself available to the Probation Services for six months and pay 2,000 as a token of remorse to the victim, who, declining to accept the payment, indicated that the money should be paid to a charity focused on tackling gender based violence.
Case background
At the hearing in November, Detective Garda Eamon Teen gave evidence of how the accused was traced using “extensive” CCTV footage of Dublin 6 and 8, as well as taxi records of FreeNow passengers on the night.
CCTV of the incident showed the accused coming up behind the victim, who was wearing light blue jeans, a white tank top, and white heels, as she stood outside the hotel before she turned to look at him for a moment before he walked away.
The footage showed Morris then coming back towards the victim and following her across the road, into the hotel lobby, into the lift, and onto the 5th floor.
There, he overtook her before walking ahead and exiting the hotel via the emergency stairwell back onto Harcourt Street.
Detective Leen said that when the accused was interviewed, he did not give a full account of what happened and said that he had thought that the victim was his girlfriend, whom the court said he had fought with.
The defending counsel of the accused said that her client “had been drinking excessively” on the night and was “highly intoxicated”, which Detective Leen did not accept as “clear” from the footage.
She said Morris’ actions on the night were “reckless” and that he had accepted that he had put the victim “in fear”.
He has lost his job as a result of the incident, she said.
Victim Impact Statement
In November, the victim said that before the incident, she had been “working really hard” on her “confidence” and “becoming a role model” and that she had got to a place where she was “proud” of herself, but all this had “changed in a single night”.
She said the incident “changed how I feel about safety, people, and myself ” and that she “was having so much fun” out with her friends and at an event she had attended where she had been gifted the outfit she was wearing at the time, describing how this “happy proud moment” was “stripped” from her.
Through tears, she said, “I still blame myself for not being extra aware,” she said, adding that she wondered if she had worn a jacket or “shown less skin” if he would have “followed” her.
“I don’t feel safe walking into my apartment anymore,” she said, adding, “I don’t want to share a lift with strangers,” and how she now brings a friend or her mother if she has to stay out overnight, and that she “used to love travelling alone.”
She said that she now turns down events in Dublin, which has led to her “losing out on revenue” and “opportunities as a creator”.
She deserved how she was “prepared to be hurt” when Morris got in the lift with her, and how she had begun recording on her phone so her family would “know what happened to me.”
The victim described having to “put on a brave face for the public ” and how the incident “doesn’t just affect one night, but forever.”
She expressed, “Hope justice will be served so I can finally move on”.
Reading section 10.2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, Judge Kelly described how the law sets out that the offence is one of causing someone to “fear violence will be used against them” or another person by way of following them without excuse.
Judge Kelly said that she gave her statement “very well” and that Morris’ actions had caused her “immense fear” and had a “quite serious effect on her life” which “knocked her back”.
“It is a serious matter, and I have to take it seriously,” she said before remanding Morris on continuing bail for the preparation of a probation report and that he engage in restorative justice.
Today, Judge Kelly noted that a probation report compiled in respect of the accused had found that Morris could be a danger when under the influence of alcohol and that he was a chronic alcoholic.
He cooperated with the probation services since the last adjournment of the case, but claimed to have no recollection of the events, and gave an “overly simplified” narrative of the incident.