2 days Ago By [email protected] (Ciara O'Loughlin)
SInn Fein MEP Kathleen Funchion admitted she has “very serious trust issues” and her life has been changed after her former partner was jailed under Coco’s Law. Sean Tyrell was jailed for four months, under the Harassment and Harmful Communications Act with a separate four-month jail term suspended for two years. The court heard he made false accusations about Ms Funchion, saying she had been unfaithful.
They began a relationship in 2016 and after they split in 2022, he contacted a journalist claiming a Sinn Fein politician was making false claims about domestic violence and financial abuse. Screengrabs of these emails were sent to Ms Funchion, as Tyrell threatened to give the journalist her name if she didn’t meet his demands including taking a lie detector test. The MEP said she considered agreeing and these thoughts are common for those who are coercively controlled.
She told RTE ’s News At One: “He wanted me to take a lie detector test, which I would say at one point I was considering doing. “That shows how it gets into your head and you really do doubt yourself. When I think back about that now, I thought that this will resolve the issue, that someone being able to go through your phone, that you can show that there’s nothing to hide.
Somebody who is controlling like that, no matter what you do, nothing is good enough.” Ms Funchion decided to go to the gardai after she was at “breaking point” in August 2022. She recalled: “I was very, very upset.
I wasn’t sleeping or eating. “I feel like I spent all of that time in my life crying ..
. I went into the gardai and spoke to them. They have been incredible, and unbelievable in the work that they do on a daily basis.
I found they were objective, but so professional and kind in their approach. They really made me feel that I wasn’t going crazy.” While the Sinn Fein politician said she felt “physically lighter” leaving court on Monday, it has left her with “very serious trust issues”.
She added: “I don’t see that ever leaving me. I find it difficult to acknowledge this but it has changed my life, and not in a positive way. “I question people more that come into my life, and I keep my circle very, very small .
.. But I am really glad that I did see this through to the end, and that there was justice yesterday.
” Coco’s Law criminalises the non-consensual distribution of intimate images and cyberbullying. It’s named after Nicole Fox, who died by suicide after suffering online bullying. Join our Dublin Live breaking news service on WhatsApp.
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