A 38-YEAR-old West Cork man has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for breaching the Sex Offenders Act by using a different name on the dating website, Tinder.
Ian Horgan of The Hermitage, Macroom was before Judge James McNulty at Macroom District Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to the breach as well as not notifying gardaí of a change in his address.
Sgt Trish O’Sullivan said they had been made aware in May of last year that the defendant had set up a Tinder account using the name ‘Cian’. She said he has 15 previous convictions including manslaughter, rape, robbery, affray, violent disorder and possession of drugs for sale or supply. Solicitor Sean Cahill said: ‘He always maintained that he had been using predictive text when filling out the application form and did not intend to put the name “Cian” down.’
But Judge McNulty said that when one commits an offence as ‘heinous’ as rape, being on the Sex Offenders register is one of the burdens one carries through life. ‘The most serious aspect of this was the likelihood that some innocent man or woman viewing Tinder might have been misled as to the reality of the person appearing on screen and assume he was a man of good character with no convictions,’ he said.
