Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan’s former assistant sentenced to community service over ‘skinny dipping’ tweet – The Irish Times

A former parliamentary assistant to MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan has been sentenced to 150 hours of community service for sending a post from the politician’s Twitter account about former Green Party election candidate Saoirse McHugh skinny-dipping.

Diarmuid Hayes, a film-maker who worked for Mr Flanagan for 18 months, previously apologised for sending the post from the MEP’s social media account and said it had been an “impulsive” joke.

The post stated “Sapirse mchugh photo skinny dipping” [sic] and led people to believe Mr Flanagan had intended to search online for photographs of the Co Mayo woman but had posted the intended search words on Twitter by accident.

The post was published on Mr Flanagan’s Twitter, now X, account, in the early hours of September 28th, 2020. Following a criminal investigation Mr Hayes was charged with fraudulently intending to damage the reputation of Mr Flanagan over the post.

At the time of the tweet Mr Hayes was no longer working in the MEP’s office in the European Parliament, but he still had access to his social media account through a third-party app.

In a hearing on Monday in the Palace of Justice in Brussels, Mr Hayes was sentenced to 150 hours of community service.

Judge Isabelle Jacquemin urged Mr Hayes to be conscious of the consequences of his actions and his use of social media, particularly when it is used to damage someone’s reputation.

The judge said if Mr Hayes does not comply with the order to carry out community service he would face a prison sentence of 15 months. He was also fined €5,000 and some court-related costs.

Originally from north Dublin, Mr Hayes had worked as a parliamentary assistant to Mr Flanagan from January 2018 until July 2019. The court previously heard Mr Hayes had felt aggrieved when his contract was not renewed.

He told a court hearing in February that publishing the tweet had been a joke and an “impulsive” decision taken late one night after smoking cannabis. Mr Hayes described the relationship with Mr Flanagan as “very complicated” and said an initial offer of a one-year contract extension was later revoked.

The court heard Mr Hayes retained access to the social media account after his employment ended through a third party app, Tweetcaster, despite Mr Flanagan having changed his passwords.

Mr Flanagan told the hearing the episode had been “traumatising” for him and his family and had led to abuse and ridicule. The Co Roscommon politician criticised Mr Hayes for not putting his “hand up” and publicly admitting that he had made the post in the days afterwards.

Belgian public prosecutor Thomas Descamps sought a one-year prison sentence for Mr Hayes and said he would not oppose that being suspended.

In his submission, Mr Descamps said Mr Hayes had been motivated by “revenge” and the post had intended to harm Mr Flanagan.

Charlotte Henderickx, a lawyer representing Mr Hayes, had petitioned the judge to sentence her client to community service.