Phone sex pest jailed for two years
A two-year jail sentence was imposed today on an out-of-control phone sex pest who made thousands of lewd and disturbing phone calls despite repeated warnings to stop.
Anthony Quigley (aged 28) from Roches Heights, Mitchelstown, Co Cork, was jailed for two years by Judge Sean O'Donnabhain at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
He was previously given a suspended two-year sentence for the crimes but that suspension was lifted and the sentence was imposed yesterday for persistent re-offending.
And he was also sentenced to a concurrent two-year sentence for a fresh case arising from the harrassment of a shop assistant at a store in Mitchelstown on January 24 this year.
Detective Garda James Fitzpatrick said Quigley went to the shop every day for a about a week and harassed the shop assistant by making sexual and upsetting remarks to her.
The young woman was very distressed by the harassment and since it occurred her father has been accompanying her to and from work.
Judge O’Donnabhain said it was not a minor matter and that a lot of trauma had been caused.
Sentencing had been adjourned to see if some suitable place could be found to treat the defendant.
The judge said that no place appeared to be suitable and that the latest suggestion of FÁS was clearly not appropriate in the circumstances.
Detective Garda Fitzpatrick said previously: "The defendant will only comply with an order of the court for a short time. He usually lapses into drink, he puts his eye on a girl who he fancies and the wheel falls of the wagon again."
Despite an order to stay away from phones on his release from custody after almost a year, Quigley bought a mobile phone in his father's name and a short time later he bought another phone from which he made 4,500 calls, according to the detective.
Psychiatrist, Dr David Dunne, said previously of the defendant: "He is a worry, whether he will go on to a be a major worry I don't know."
Quigley was convicted of making a huge number of phone calls, mainly to married women, most of them in Co Cork, but some in County Donegal. Some men were also telephoned by Quigley.
The calls were generally of a sexual nature and proved very upsetting for those who received them.
His obsession with ringing married women saw him make thousands of calls. In one four-day period he made 484 calls from a mobile phone and that did not include calls that he made from public phones. Det. Garda Fitzpatrick said an absolute fortune was spent on phone calls.
