Man who posted menacing messages about Derry's Mayor loses appeal

A man sentenced to five months in prison for posting threatening messages about Derry's Mayor has had his appeal against the sentence rejected today at Derry County Court. 

Kevin Barry McIntyre (31) of Miller Street in Derry had contested the two charges of improper use of communications network to send messages that were menacing on May 2 and May 4 last year.

After being found guilty by District Judge Barney McElholm and sentenced to five months in prison McIntyre appealed against the sentence. 

In his judgement today Judge Gerry McNamara said the offending had been made more serious by the fact it was aggravated by hostility based on race.

The judge quoted from the messages that the Mayor 'will be removed from the city dead or alive' and in the second post he referred to the Mayor and Colum Eastwood, the then SDLP leader, and added 'his and her death is near.'

The court heard that the posts 'caused distress to the victim and her family and the post caused her to fear for her personal safety and that of her family'.

The judge said McIntyre claimed to be expressing his views as a comedian and did not intend to threaten anyone. 

A pre-sentence report prepared after McIntyre's conviction was referred to where the defendant accepted the posts 'would have impacted on the victim in a negative way' but further in the same report he stated 'the victim herself was a racist'.

In mitigation the judge said he had been told that McIntyre had 'belatedly learned his lesson and that he underestimated the consequences'.

The judge said that in his opinion 'both posts fall into a bracket of a threat of physical violence'.

Judge McNamara went on: "In relation to both posts they both mention death. This is no accident. The second posts mentions the victim's colour. That was no accident."

He said McIntyre 'trampled all over the rights of the victim' and his posts 'were designed to intimidate and strike fear into the victim.'

The judge pointed out that these posts 'generated others to send further racist and threatening posts to the victim'.

He said the victim was 'someone trying to do her civic duty for society'.

Judge McNamara said that after considering all matters he affirmed the five month sentence and McIntyre was taken into custody.