A FORMER Fianna Fail councillor returned to a restaurant three times in six days harassing a waitress he was fixated on telling her “she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen” and admitting he was “a kind of a stalker”.
Joseph O’Donovan, formerly known as Gary O’Flynn, appeared before Cork District Court today having pleaded guilty to one count of harassment.
The alleged offence occurred on three dates between July 30 and August 6, 2022 in Cork city.
The now 50-year-old, of Melvindale House, Coolowen, Blarney, Co Cork, was dining in a restaurant in the city centre on July 30 where he remained for over two hours drinking wine.
Sergeant John Kelleher prosecuting said O’Flynn told the waitress, who was 25 at the time that “she was the nicest and prettiest girl he had ever seen”.
He caught her hand, kissed it and held it to his chest making the young woman feel very uncomfortable.
On August 1 he returned and said he only wanted the victim to serve him.
He was asked to leave but he returned and said to her, while breathing in her ear: “You meet me outside for your tip and I want your phone number for it”.
He went outside and stood staring in the window.
She went out and asked him to leave her alone and as she returned to work, he told her she would see him again.
He was asked by staff to leave and he threw a €50 note at the victim.
On August 8, the waitress was finishing up her work and O’Donovan again tried to see her.
HEARD IN COURT
He stood in front of her and she told him to leave. He said: “Sorry I can’t help it I am a kind of stalker”.
O’Donovan was arrested on August 16 after the woman made a complaint about him.
He told Gardai the woman was very pretty and he had kissed her hand out of politeness and courtesy, like something in the movies. He had never intended to upset her.
He said she did not seem terrified of him and denied she had told him to stop harassing her.
He said he had given her a €50 tip inside the restaurant and another €50 outside.
He had tried to meet up with her as she was leaving work. He was sorry that he had disturbed her.
Sergeant Kelleher said O’Donovan had 26 previous convictions including three for soliciting a person to murder three people in 2013.
The victim read her own Victim Impact Statement, which Judge Mary Dorgan described as “powerful”.
She said she did not forgive or forget what O’Donovan had done. She said: “I never forgot his stares, his weird comments, the way he would linger and wait”.
‘HE DIDN’T STOP’
She said he had taken her working professionalism as permission.
She said: “When I said no he didn’t stop and from that moment on I didn’t feel safe.
“I never imagined that something as ordinary as going to work could turn into something I’d carry with me for years.”
She said what O’Donovan had done was not harmless flirting that wasn’t reciprocated, “it was a persistent, calculated and deeply intrusive campaign of harassment”.
She said: “This man looked me in the eyes and called himself a creep. This man looked me dead in the eyes and called himself a stalker, then laughed about it. He laughed with a laugh that made me recoil in fear and that has never left me”.
Defending lawyer Frank Buttimer said as a result of these incidents O’Donovan began to look at his circumstances and attended a consultant psychiatrist.
He had given up drink and was believed to be on the autism spectrum. He suffered from a depressive type illness and he was putting his life back together with the support of his family.
Judge Dorgan adjourned sentencing to October 3 next to allow for a full psychiatric report to be prepared as well as a probation report.
O’Donovan gave an undertaking that he would stay away from the victim and would not try to make any contact with her.
O’Donovan is the son of former TD, Noel O’Flynn and brother of Ken O’Flynn who was elected a TD in the last General Election.
Noel O’Flynn served in the constituency of Cork North Central from 1997 until his retirement in 2011 and O’Donovan, when he was known as Gary O’Flynn, was a sitting councillor in Cork city from 2003 to 2008.
He took his father’s old seat on the council in 2003 when the dual mandate ban came in to force.
He concluded his political career five years later with his seat going to his brother, Ken who held a seat ever since as an Independent councillor on the northside of Cork city until his election to the Dail.
